


i'm happiest when i'm with you

by hwanglix



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 2min student council rivals, Alternate Universe - High School, Attempt at Humor, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Denial of Feelings, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Kim Seungmin-centric, Lots of that, M/M, Slow Burn, Student Council, half of this fic is just seungmin talking about how beautiful minho is, jilix if you squint, mentions of tight baseball pants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:51:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 44,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26620177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hwanglix/pseuds/hwanglix
Summary: metanoia (n.) the journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self, or way of life, spiritual conversationSeungmin and Minho are student council rivals who clash together in more ways than one. When they have a particularly bad fight over student council matters, Seungmin learns that Minho isn't the arrogant student body president he always thought he was. Maybe there was more to Minho than Seungmin had originally thought.
Relationships: Kim Seungmin/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 65
Kudos: 321
Collections: Seungmin-Centric Ficfest





	1. chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> ahhh i am so so so excited to be contributing to the 2min tag now <3 seungmin and minho are my babies and i thought that they fit the student council rivals trope so well! i had so much fun writing this fic and got really carried away as well (it was only supposed to be a max of 20k words and look at it now)
> 
> big thank you to gg! please she deserves so many cookies for helping with all my grammar and spelling mistakes <3 ily <3
> 
> also big big big thank you to the mods of the ficfest! you have been so kind and i have had so much fun writing for your fest!
> 
> now without further ado, enjoy i'm happiest when i'm with you~

metanoia (n.)  _ the journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self, or way of life, spiritual conversation _

“So, we took care of everything?” The student body president smiles, his calm gaze traveling to all the student council members around the table. Slowly, the president's gaze lands on Seungmin, and the junior representative leans his elbows against the table in front of him and lets his head fall into his open palms. It was yet another Friday where Seungmin had clashed with their lovely president, Lee Minho. 

“Yeah, I think we covered everything,” the sophomore representative, Lee Daehwi, speaks up next. Seungmin continues to keep his head buried in his palms. From his right, Seungmin feels a soft pat on his shoulder trying to comfort him. He knows it's the student council's treasurer, Choi Soobin, because he always sits on Seungmin’s right. Plus, it’s a natural occurrence for the treasurer to comfort Seungmin due to his lovely conversations with their even lovelier president. 

“Awesome!” From beside Minho, the secretary, Kim Jiwoo, who sometimes went as Chuu, claps her hands together, a wide pretty smile on her face. “Everyone, don’t forget the first baseball game is tonight and everyone is required to attend! Minho, Soobin, and Seungmin have all volunteered to help out the team tonight, correct?” 

Seungmin nods, though a little uncomfortably due to his head still being buried in his palms. 

“Great, and next week we will be having an additional meeting after school on Monday to go over everything for the assembly on Friday,” Jiwoo finishes with a wide smile, looking across all the student council members. 

Seungmin finally looks up, not trying to hide the frown on his face, and makes sure to look everywhere else but at Lee Minho. 

“And that’s it on reminders!” Jiwoo looks down at the agenda in front of her before giving everyone one last beaming smile. From across the table, Seungmin can see the many different color highlighters she uses to organize. He smiles to himself, glad that Jiwoo was the secretary for their student council. And if everything went according to his plan, she would be his secretary next year when he becomes president. 

“We don’t have much coming up until after the assembly,” Minho starts talking again, and Seungmin feels his mood drop, for the nth time in that meeting. “Is there anything else anyone wants to cover before we officially end the meeting?” 

“Oh, I do!” Just a little away from his left, the student council's historian, Lee Chaeryeong, lifts a hand up to get everyone’s attention. 

“What is it?” Minho asks, and Seungmin’s gaze goes back to the president, almost like a magnet. Minho has that same stupid smile he always has, it’s incredibly soft, and whenever he would tilt his head he would almost look feline. That’s what he was doing now, tilting his head just a little in Chaeryeong's direction, his soft smile looking like it belonged to a cat. Seungmin looks away angrily. 

“I would like everyone to make a post on the Instagram story about the assembly,” Chaeryeong says cheerfully, her gaze shifting over to the student council's committee, Huang Renjun, who was sitting on the other side of Soobin. “Renjun and I went over the number of attendance in the last couple events we’ve done, and it shows that when we post about upcoming events regularly on our social media page, we get more attendance, so I would like everyone to make a post on the story and then we’ll have Minho make an official post after the meeting Monday.” 

“That sounds amazing, Chaeryeong,” the vice president, Park Seonghwa, says when Chaeryeong finishes with a proud smile, “good job you two!” 

“I agree with Seonghwa,” Minho smiles and Seungmin regrettably looks over at him, again, but as soon as he looks at the president, he’s shocked. He wasn’t smiling his usual smile, this one was different, this one looked genuine. 

“We are all really glad to have you two on our team,” Minho practically beams, and Seungmin looks at the committee and historian to see both blushing softly at the compliment, or maybe at the president’s smile, who knows. 

It was rare for a sophomore to have a position outside of the representative, so when Seungmin had found out that Chaeryeong, a sophomore, had gotten the position as a historian, he was surprised. Though after getting to know her, he learned that there was really nobody better for the position than her, and her getting the position as a sophomore just showed how well she did her job. 

Seungmin had been a member since he was a sophomore as well. Though he had had the representative position just like he did this year, it wasn’t uncommon for the representative students to stay in the same position as they got older. Though he had never seen a student who was as interested in student council as Chaeryeong was, maybe besides Jiwoo but she was just an optimistic and cheerful person naturally. 

“Anything else?” Minho asks, but this time Seungmin has the self-control to not look at him. Everybody shakes their head no, Seungmin doesn’t even bother though, because he knows Minho won’t pay him any mind. “Meeting over, and Soobin, I would like to talk to you a bit about the bake sale before Monday.” 

The sound of chairs scraping against the floor of the classroom overpowers the groan Seungmin lets out as he turns to the right to his friend.

“Just ignore him, please help me escape, don’t go,” Seungmin pleads to Soobin, ready to get down on his hands and knees to beg his friend. 

“Seungmin, you know I can’t do that!” Soobin says affronted like he can’t even believe Seungmin was suggesting it. 

“Please, Soobin, I would do anything,” Seungmin says, this time really ready to drop to his knees and  _ beg _ . 

But he is too late. 

“Seungmin!” Minho’s voice invades their space as the president walks up to the two juniors, the same soft smile on his face like always. 

“Hello, president, sir,” Soobin bows low, almost 90 degrees, and Seungmin has the inkling to take out a proctor just to see how close he is to 90 degrees. 

“Soobin, you don’t need to be so polite,” Minho laughs, it’s airy and carefree, and Seungmin can’t help but think it sounds nice. The thought makes him want to throw up. 

“Can we talk a little about the bake sale during lunch? It’s okay if you can't, I just wanted to go over some details before we all begin planning it,” Minho faces Soobin, the way he talks sounding professional and understanding, the perfect air of authority and kindness a president should have. Seungmin hated to admit it, but Minho really was the perfect president. 

Last year, only two juniors had run for president. Lee Minho and Park Seonghwa. Both Minho and Seonghwa were perfect for the position, but Minho had beaten Seonghwa to be president. Minho had chosen Seonghwa to be his vice president, and they had been a perfect pair for the student council. 

“Yes! Of course, sir!” Soobin says almost going down to bow again, but Minho catches him on the shoulder before he could get the chance. 

“Great, I’ll meet you at the door, I just want to talk to Seungmin for a second,” Minho looked away from Soobin to lock eyes with Seungmin. Like usual in the presence of evil, Seungmin felt a shudder go down his spine. 

Minho cornered Seungmin after almost every student council meeting, it would have been every meeting if Seungmin hadn’t sprinted out of the room or used his friends within the council for help to escape. It was just his luck that he didn’t make it out in time that day. 

“Yes, sir!” Soobin stutters out, Minho preventing the boy from bowing  _ again _ by the hand still on his shoulder. Soobin wiggles out, quickly bowing to their dismay, and scuffles back to wait by the door. Seungmin lets out a sigh, now alone with Minho. 

“I’m sorry we disagreed so much today during the meeting,” turning his gaze away from Soobin, Seungmin looks over at Minho to see the president’s eyes already on him. Seungmin could feel his chest tighten a little, but he tries to pay it no mind. 

“That’s pretty normal between us, isn’t it?” Seungmin says, knowing he should probably try to be nicer to the president since he gave evaluations on each member to Mr. Song, their advisor. In the future he would have to talk with Mr. Song to set up his campaign for when he ran for president the next year, so he always tries to be on his good side. Minho just laughs, and it sounds genuine, like his laughter earlier. It’s just like before, carefree and airy, and Seungmin really hates how nice it is on his ears. 

“It is, but that’s what everyone is here for,” Minho gestures to around the room, where some of the members were still hanging around the room: Soobin waiting at the door, Chaeyeong and Renjun in deep conversation towards the corner of the room, and Seonghwa and Dahyun laughing, still sitting at the table. 

“We all have the qualities to challenge each other to be the best, to make the best decisions for our school, we were all chosen because of that,” Minho tilts his head, that feline smile ever-present. 

“You aren’t wrong, Mr. President,” Seungmin begrudgingly agrees, using the nickname for Minho, he started using when they first started having their disagreements. Just like always, Minho was right, and it boiled his blood. 

“And maybe when you start making more valid points, I’ll start agreeing with you,” Minho smiles, showing his perfectly white slightly crooked teeth, and oh does Seungmin want to knock them out with his fist. 

“I can say the same thing to you, Mr. President,” Seungmin forces himself to smile, his cheeks stinging with the force of it. He is 100% positive it looks absolutely fake, but he really does not care. 

“I look forward to clashing with you on Monday, Seungmin. Oh, and see you tonight,” Minho winks and Seungmin freezes in his spot. Minho notices the slight change in his demeanor and quirks the corner of his mouth just enough for Seungmin to notice, giving the junior representative one last look before walking away towards Soobin. 

Seungmin gulps, staying frozen in his spot as his stomach erupts into somersaults. Sometimes Minho surprises Seungmin with just how mad he can make him. 

Though he was happy that this time their conversation was shorter. Sometimes Minho would corner him to debate some more. One time Minho had tried to get Seungmin to see his point and called his opinion lazy and uninteresting, Soobin had to put his arm around the junior representative so he wouldn't jump on the president. 

He takes one last look to where Minho was walking off and catches eyes with Soobin. Seungmin gives Soobin a smile and a reassuring thumbs-up hoping it would help with the slightly younger boy. 

Soobin was a really confident person. He was confident in pretty much everything; with who he was, his studies, his position within the student council, but something about their president sent his nerves crazy. It was a little funny as Soobin absolutely towered over their short president. 

Once both Soobin and Minho had walked out the door to the classroom they were in, Seungmin finally let himself breathe. 

Seungmin picks his backpack up from where he was resting it against the back of his chair, putting his notebook that he uses to take notes during the meetings in one of the pockets, and leaves the room trying to breathe normally again. 

Seungmin’s rivalry with Minho had been going on longer than he could really remember. They had met last year when Seungmin was a sophomore and newly elected as the sophomore representative for the student council and Minho had just moved up to the junior representative. Seungmin had looked up to him because everyone knew that he was next in line to be president of the student council. He was also close to Jeongguk, the previous president, which Seungmin had found amazing. They had barely talked then, only talking when it involved something within the council that the representatives had to take care of. They hadn't clashed at all then. It wasn't until the next year that something just seemed to snap between them. Seungmin doesn't know the first time they clashed or fought, it just seemed to happen and then after that, it was all they could do. 

Seungmin makes his way through the school, past the familiar route he took every Friday after their meetings from their advisor's classroom. 

The student council held mandatory meetings every Friday before lunch. They had those meetings as a way to end and start a week, plus in case some members had after school priorities that would cause them to miss outside of school scheduled meetings. All members were excused from their classes during the meetings. It was nice because the teachers whose classes he missed were always super supportive and gave him help for lessons he missed. He figured he got that special treatment for being such a good student and a major kiss up. 

After the short walk from Mr. Song’s room, Seungmin walks through the thrown open doors to their school's lunchroom. He’s immediately hit with the spell of kimchi stew. Fridays were always kimchi stew days. Seungmin casts his eyes towards the farthest end of the lunchroom, to where he always went after Friday meetings and spots a familiar head of faded lavender hair. His feet move on their own, so used to this routine. 

“Hey,” Seungmin says tiredly, setting his bag down on the table and sliding into the seat next to his best friend. 

“Oh, hi!” Lee Felix looks up from the book he's reading, his eyes just slightly blown wide in shock from being so invested in his book and Seungmin’s sudden appearance. 

Felix had been Seungmin’s best friend since last year when he had been the sophomore representative and had to welcome the brand new sophomore into the school. Felix had moved from Australia to accommodate his parents' new job the previous year. When they had first met they had talked and laughed together so naturally that they immediately became good friends. Now, Felix was his best friend.

Seungmin smiles fondly at his friend, “did I scare you?” 

“Just a little,” Felix laughs a little flusteredly. 

“Whatcha reading?” Seungmin asks and reaches into his bookbag, pulling out the lunch he packed for himself the previous day. 

“It’s new, kinda basic, but I really like the way the author writes so I’m dealing with the cliches,” Felix shrugs and slides a random piece of plastic between the pages of his book. Seungmin smiles at the action, Felix’s ability to make anything into a bookmark has always amazed him. 

“How was the meeting today? Did Minho drive you crazy, again?” Felix asks and laughs when Seungmin groans and buries his hands into his palms. 

“All he did was question everything I said,” Seungmin whines through his hands. 

“That's not exactly new,” Felix reaches out and rubs Seungmin’s back.

“It’s like he does it on purpose! Like he singles my ideas out and just completely annihilates them!” Seungmin looks up and dramatically flings his arms out to prove his point. 

“Did you mention your idea for the halftime game?” Felix asks, laughing at his friend’s dramatics. 

“I did, and again, he just questioned everything and then decided to stay with the normal game,” Seungmin whines, not being able to hide his frustration for the topic.

“That sucks,” Felix pouts and brings a hand up to play with one of the strands of Seungmins hair that always liked to stick out on the side. “I liked the idea.” 

“See! It  _ was _ a good idea!” Seungmin groans and presses his fingers into the bridge of his nose when the memory of Minho shutting his idea down resurfaces. 

Felix was well used to his Friday rants.

No matter what, Minho always had something to say about Seungmin’s ideas, and it was never something positive. It always resulted in Seungmin coming back from the meetings and ranting to Felix about everything that went down. It wasn't even a surprise that Minho had shut down his idea.

“You know, you could always talk to Mr. Song about Minho,” Felix says, dipping one of his baby carrots in ranch and munching on it.

“I could,” Seungmin sighs, “but, he's the president, and I don't want to complain about him to a teacher, it just seems so childish.” 

“A little, but it could fix your problem with him,” Felix says, bringing his chin down to rest on his palm. 

“I don’t think anything can fix my problem with Lee fucking Minho,” Seungmin grumbles, stealing a carrot from Felix.

“It kinda seems like Minho’s just teasing you,” Felix suddenly blurts, lifting his head up from where he was resting his chin on his palm.

“What?” Seungmin sputters. 

“I don’t know!” Felix laughs a little like he can’t believe what he said, or like he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of what he said sooner, Seungmin wasn't sure. “Well, most of the time when you tell me what Minho says, it just seems like he's trying to get you riled up, and it's certainly working.” 

“Why would he want to rile me up?” Seungmin asks, bewildered. 

“I’m not sure, maybe he likes you,” Felix shrugs, and goes back to rest his cheek on his palm. 

“He doesn't like me!” Seungmin argues. 

“Sure, whatever you say Seung,” Felix laughs, and his eyes go up into cute little crescents. 

“Okay, enough about Minho, I don't want to talk about that arrogant prick anymore,” Seungmin frowns, unsure how their topic had derived so much, and to such an insane topic at that.

Felix is quick to do as Seungmin says and mentions a new rap group he's listening to. Seungmin promises that he'll listen to them some time; though as Felix was about to send him the link to their music he quickly forgets and gets distracted, suddenly remembering how one of his classmates had pranked their teacher with a water balloon that day. 

Seungmin forgets all about Minho while talking to Felix, and the tension in his shoulders dissipates. It was one of the many things he loved about Felix, just being in his best friend's presence was relaxing, and he  _ always _ managed to make Seungmin smile. Felix just had a talent at making anyone laugh until their chest hurt.

The bell then suddenly rings all too fast. They say their goodbyes, and promise to meet up at the baseball game that night. Seungmin is then rudely reminded that he has to see Minho again that night at the game. Felix promises that he’ll be there to protect him from the student council president. 

When Seungmin begins walking to his next class, he remembers what his best friend said, and Felix’s words ring through his head. 

_ Maybe he likes you.  _

_ It’s stupid, _ Seungmin assures himself. Minho obviously didn't like him like that. And even if he did, Seungmim wouldn't have even cared. He totally wouldn't have cared at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed chapter one! dont be afraid to comment ur thoughts! i crave attention <3 
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)


	2. chapter two

The uniform Seungmin had to wear while being a ball boy for the baseball team was probably the most uncomfortable thing he's ever worn- and he wore the sweaters his grandma knitted for him on holidays. It was like a crappy, washed-out version of the actual uniform; too tight for their own good baseball pants that went down to mid-calf, awfully made grey socks, and a grey baseball shirt with the itchiest inner lining. It was terrible. It didn't even match their actual team’s uniforms. Their school uniforms, Seungmin had to admit, looked really fucking good. Or maybe the baseball players just really wore it well, either way, they looked _good_. 

The school put a _lot_ of funding into their sports, especially the baseball team. It was only fitting due to their baseball team being in division one, and the previous year had made it into nationals. The uniforms were red, a deep vibrant red that stood out against the dark maroon accents. Their school symbol stood strong and elegant on the front left side and the player number on the right. On the back, the player’s name stood proud on the back just above the player number, all in the same pretty dark maroon. And then finally the socks and belt were also in the same maroon bringing the outfit together exceptionally well. In Seungmin’s opinion, the uniform looked like it could be strutted down the runway, especially with how some of the players wore it. 

“Watch out!” A familiar vibrating voice echoes across the field he was walking across, and like the smart person he was, Seungmin watches out and ducks down. The all too familiar sound of a baseball soaring past his head sends goosebumps trailing up his arms.

“Jisung! What the hell!” Another familiar voice shrieks. Seungmin breaths in a shaky breath and stands up straight after the close call. 

Seungmin looks up with a fond smile as two sophomores come running at him, both with worry etched into their faces. 

“Shit, Seungmin did that hit you?” Their school's starting pitcher, Park Jisung, came running up, almost barreling into Seungmin but stopping just in time. 

“Jisung! Of all times to throw a pitch like that it had to be when someone was walking by!” Jisung's best friend, Zhong Chenle, smacked his mitt against Jisung's shoulder, the tough leather connecting against the pitcher’s uniform with a loud smack. Chenle was their team's starting third baseman, but due to his closeness with Jisung, would occasionally catch his practice pitches. Really anyone could catch for Jisung with his scarily accurate pitches, even Seungmin. Jisung had pitched their team into nationals with almost complete shutout games the previous year. He was a protege their school was just lucky enough to get their hands on but had his occasional thrown pitches like just now. 

“I’m sorry!” Jisung squeaks out, rubbing at his shoulder where Chenle’s mitt had come in contact with. 

Seungmin laughs at the two, a bright smile on his face, “I’m fine you guys.” 

Seungmin has known Jisung and Chenle since last year when they had first started on the team. They were two of the three freshmen who joined the team the previous year, and Seungmin had befriended them while he was volunteering for the baseball team. Plus, Jisung and Chenle were a little hard to forget with just how loud they were together. When it came to cheering for the team in the dugouts, Chenle wore the crown for the loudest cheers. 

“You’re lucky Seungmin’s fine,” Chenle hit Jisung again with his mitt, though much lighter this time. 

Jisung ignores Chenle, instead, turns and looks at Seungmin with wide eyes and asks, “are you volunteering tonight?” 

“I mean,” Seungmin gestures down at the uniform he was wearing, “I wouldn't exactly wear this for fun.” 

“You make it work,” Chenle laughs and nudges Seungmin’s shoulder, and the older almost tips over, not expecting the strength from the younger. 

“Hey! Park! Zhong! Get back to drills!” A head of bright blond hair, almost white with how blond it looked, stuck out of the dugout, interrupting them and calling out to the two sophomores. The blond fully steps out of the dugout and Seungmin recognizes him as Bang Chan, the captain of the baseball team and he dimly remembers him as one of Minho’s friends. 

“Yes, sir!” Jisung calls as Chenle shrieks out, “aye, aye, Cap!”

Seungmin snickers at the two as they both run off, waving at him before going back to drills. Seungmin calls a quick, “good luck today!” to the two running boys. He says it even though he knows the two don't need it. 

“Seungmin!” Chan calls out again and Seungmin looks over, confused. 

“Yeah?” 

“Minho’s been looking for you!” Chan says before running back out to the field to join the drills, not waiting for a response from Seungmin. 

The junior representative just sputters, a knot beginning to form in his stomach at the notion that Minho was looking for him. Seungmin just shakes his head, trying to rid himself of the almost groggy feeling that had come over him after Chan’s words. 

_What the hell was wrong with him?_

Seungmin ignores the anticipation he feels in his stomach, writing it off as just his nerves, but he doesn't understand why he would even be nervous. 

His confusion brings back that groggy feeling, but Seungmin pushes it away and steels himself as he walks into the dugout, expecting to see Minho. He steps in and the dugout is empty. Seungmin lets out a relieved sigh and leans against the doorframe of the dugout, the chain link fence digging into his side. Seungmin focuses on the metal chain link fence digging into his skin, trying to bring his thoughts back from whatever mess they had flung themselves into.

Finally feeling able to think straight, Seungmin walks into the dugout and threads his fingers into the little holes of the chain links and looks out at the field. 

Chan was in the middle of the outfield, hitting ground balls at a couple of players. Seungmin recognized a couple, like Jeno, who just threw the ball he caught back to Chan, but it greatly missed and flew over the captain's head. 

Seungmin watches as Chan runs after the ball, memories starting to flow through his head. 

Last year he had a massive crush on Chan. Massive. It was how he got himself stuck always volunteering for the baseball team. Last year he wouldn't miss a game, always going to see Chan and trying to get enough courage to talk to him. His crush had been completely mind-consuming, to the point he would doodle their names together inside a little heart. When he looks back at his crush, he just feels embarrassed at how obsessed he was. Eventually, the crush fizzled out. Though he figured it was when baseball season ended and they no longer needed to volunteer at the games, which meant he never got to see Chan. 

Though just before the end of summer, Seungmin had written Chan a love letter and with the help of Felix, since his best friend and Chan had been friends due to their similar upbringings in Australia, his love letter had found its way into Chan’s bookbag. Seungmin had not signed his name, way too embarrassed because he had just been a shy underclassman while Chan had been a popular upperclassman. 

He can't even remember what had been in the letter now, though when he really thought about his crush, it had almost been half a year ago. The crush had now completely fizzled out, and now he was just a little shy around Chan from the memories of his previous feelings. 

Seungmin watches as Chan calls all the players over and sees Jisung and Chenle running over, hand in hand. He smiles fondly after them and wonders just how long it will take the two to admit their feelings for each other. It’s terribly obvious to everyone around them, expert for the two involved of course. 

“Oh, good! Seungmin, you’re here!” Minho walks through the open door towards the back of the dugout, carrying a watercooler, hands on either side and shirt sleeves rolled up just a little to show his slightly sculpted arms straining to lift the watercooler. Seungmin was so lost in his thoughts that he never saw the last person he wanted to see sneak into the dugout, but by the way his heart started to speed up it seemed to be the opposite. 

Seungmin buries that thought into the depths of his mind under lock and key. 

Minho hefts the watercooler onto the end of the bench inside the dugout with a grunt. Once he lost the weight of the cooler he let out a sigh of relief and turns to Seungmin asking, “care to help me with the rest?” 

“No,” is what Seungmin wants to say, but he puts his practiced smile on his face and answers with a polite, “of course.” It wasn't like he could even say no, it was his job as one of the ball boys. 

“Great! They’re just at the door of the sports wing.” Minho places a hand on his hip, leaning his weight to the side as he sucks in a breath and lets it out in a big puff. Minho shoots Seungmin a smile before turning and walking out of the dugout. The junior rep follows suit, absolutely not trying to stare at the president's exposed arms. 

They walk the way up to the school in silence, Seungmin just a step behind Minho. The walk to the school from the field wasn’t that long, but Seungmin couldn't understand it would have been nice to have to carry the water coolers all the way. Seungmin has no idea how Minho had carried the cooler all the way to the dugout. 

Their school was more on the prestigious side, the entrance exams harder than most, and tuition quite steep without any aid. All of that showed in the school building. The building was separated into wings on the bottom floor. Each wing sectioned off for where their school succeeded in. There were three in total; the theatre wing, where their grand auditorium was; the scholar wing, where their bigger-than-average library was; and then the sports wing, where their spacious gymnasium was. Then their classrooms, which were separated into classes, the next three floors. Seungmin spent very little time in the sports wing, the only time he went there willingly was to watch Felix’s volleyball games. He hadn't been there recently due to their season ending. 

He followed Minho right up to the door that opened to one of the hallways into the sports wing, and through the door, Seungmin could see the rest of the water coolers. There were four in total and Minho had already bought one. 

Minho held the door open for him, and Seungmin muttered a little thanks and walked into the school. He sighs, knowing he's going to have to carry the coolers individually when something catches his eye. 

“Why didn't you just use the cart?” Seungmin asks, eyebrows furrowed together as he gestures towards the perfectly usable cart just a few meters away from the rest of the coolers. At least it looked perfectly usable because Seungmin couldn't understand how anyone could willingly carry the water coolers from the school and then to the baseball field. 

“I skipped my past couple of training sessions, so I thought carrying them would be a good workout,” Minho says casually, walking over to one of the coolers and bending down to get ready to lift it up. 

Seungmin just blinks. He didn't know Minho worked out. He can't help but look down at Minho, his eyes trailing across his body, trying to find any hints showing that he had indeed been working out. Seungmin gulps and turns away, walking towards the closest water cooler. He glances down at the cooler, thinking about the most ‘working out’ he's done in the past couple weeks is holding a stack of ten or so library books when he last volunteered at the school library. 

“So, we’ll just carry them one at a time to the dugout?” Seungmin asks Minho and sends him a weird look. 

“What? You don't think you can handle it?” Minho says challengingly and glances up at Seungmin from where he's crouched down at one of the coolers. Some of his fringe that's sticking together from sweat hangs in front of his face, a grin striking his gorgeous features, and Seungmin has to look away. 

“I can handle it,” Seungmin grinds out, not wanting to seem weak in front of Minho and leans down. He grips the handles of the cooler steadily and begins to lift.

“Use your legs, not your back,” Minho whispers lowly as Seungmin lifts the heavier than he expected cooler. And oh yeah, Seungmin is an idiot. He cannot do this. 

Minho must see it on his face because he gets up and steps into Seungmins space, placing his hands upon the handles of the cooler, his fingers just barely brushing against the younger's and take the cooler from him. Minho easily maneuvers it, lifting it up and placing it on top of the cart with a soft thud.

“Nice try, but you might want to use the cart,” Minho looks over his shoulder at Seungmin, who was standing frozen where the elder had left him, his hands burning from where Minho had brushed against him. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Seungmin stutters, quickly busying himself by lifting the other coolers up onto the cart. Seungmin misses the way Minho's eyes trail after him. 

Minho lifts the last cooler up on the cart, and Seungmin feels annoyed with just how easy Minho makes it look because it was really not that easy.

Minho turns and leans lightly on the cart, fixing Seungmin with a smug look. “You wanna push the cart? Or are you too tired from trying to lift the cooler?”

And just like usual, Minho was lighting the match to Seungmin's flame. 

“I can do it,” Seungmin growls, pushing Minho off the cart and eliciting a bubbly laugh from the latter. The president really knew just how to press every single one of Seungmin’s buttons, the junior representative thinks as anger bubbles inside his chest. 

The walk back to the dugout was silent, and Seungmin was tempted to throw some jabs at Minho, but he held himself back. Though, Minho's presence walking beside him was like a siren. Constantly reminding Seungmin that he was there, warning him of the possible disasters that threatened to come. At least that's what Seungmin told himself, that the feeling was just a warning bell, nothing more. It was the only sane reason. 

They made it to the dugout without a hitch. The water coolers were positioned in the dugout in their usual place, everything set up for the players for when the game started. Minho was going to be on water duty that game, which meant he was stuck refilling the water bottles for the players while Seungmin and Soobin were on ball duty. Seungmin always preferred ball duty, because he wasn't alone stuck on the bench filling water bottles, and because the job was a little fun. He just went on the field every now and then to get batters thrown off bats or give the umpire an extra baseball. 

“Thanks for the help, Seungmin!” Minho turns from the water coolers to face Seungmin, a bright smile on his face. It looks different than most of his smiles, it makes his eyes crinkle more, and his cheeks puff out a little cutely. 

“Yeah, no problem,” Seungmin smiles back, but he knows his smile isn't nearly as cute. Mostly because it's fake as fuck. 

“You know, Seungmin,” Minho says, beginning to walk out of the dugout, gesturing for Seungmin to follow and because he can't say no, he follows after the president. 

“Hm?” Seungmin questions when Minho slightly pauses. It almost seems like he's hesitating, but Seungmin just brushes it off. 

“When you actually cooperate with me, you're tolerable,” Minho says, his voice cheerful and face bright with a smile that completely contrasts with his words. Seungmin feels his entire body erupt with anger and gets ready to jab back at Minho. 

“Seung! There you are!” Felix’s cheerful voice breaks through the atmosphere between Seungmin and Minho and calms the anger that had been bubbling under Seungmin’s skin. 

“Lix,” Seungmin sighs, feeling the anger his body had been building up all release in a single breath. Just like usual, Felix comes to his rescue. Seungmin is only a little sad he couldn't fight back at Minho.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Felix jogs over to the two, his eyes darting between the council members like he was waiting for one of them to start screaming.

“We were just getting the water coolers for the team,” Seungmin turns to Felix, facing away from Minho stubbornly. 

“Yeah, I’ll go back and make sure everything is ready,” Minho says politely, and Seungmin turns just enough to see Minho’s usual smile stretched across his face. It makes Seungmin stare at his lips, at the smooth skin stretching into a soft smile that looks so practiced it makes him want to scream. 

“Bye,” Seungmin forces himself to say, slipping on his fake smile that he hopes looks more genuine than it feels. Seungmin never had the art of a fake smile that he knew Minho had. Somehow, he's not sure how, Seungmin has always been able to see right through Minho's fake expressions. Maybe it's because he remembers when Minho didn't use to fake his smiles. 

Minho begins to walk off and once the president was out of earshot, Felix leans over and asks, “what did he do this time? You look absolutely pissed.”

“Just his usual demonic self,” Seungmin scowls after Minho’s retreating back, remembering what he said before Felix had arrived. What he said made Seungmin angry, and just a little sad, which just made Seungmin angrier. 

“He’s always his demonic self,” Felix snorts.

“He's just, ugh,” Seungmin grumbles, annoyed with all of his feelings. “He just knows exactly how to get under my skin, it’s so annoying.”

Felix just hums, looking behind Seungmin, his eyes still trailing Minho.

“You know I never noticed how good Minho's ass looked in those baseball pants,” Felix says, tilting his head in thought, a glint in his eye that Seungmin does not trust one bit. 

“What?” Seungmin squeaks, looking back and regrettably looking right at Minho's ass. And fuck, yes, it did look good.

“Made you look,” A smirk slowly slides onto Felix’s face, his eyes knowing as he watches Seungmin’s cheeks begin to redden. Seungmin quickly looks away, giving his best friend an accusing look.

“What the hell was that for?” Seungmin half screams half whispers, feeling the need to slap his hands against his cheeks to try to stop the blush he feels burning his face. 

“Just a hunch,” Felix giggles, the smirk quickly dissipating as his usual sunny smile replaces it. 

Seungmin just stares at his best friend completely bewildered, trying his hardest to not look back and stare at Minho’s aggravatingly nice ass. And fuck, he really wanted to.

“I didn't realize Minho was your type,” Seungmin stutters out, trying to get the image of Minho’s retreating figure out of his head. 

“Don't worry, Seungie, he’s not my type, though he is my friend's type,” Felix shrugs, turning to start walking to the bleachers, one of the corners of his mouth quirked up a bit. 

“Well, what is your type then?” Seungmin frowns, following behind his friend, giving up on trying to stop thinking of Minho. Flashes of Minho carrying the water cooler, his smirk, and his retreating figure flash through his head like movie stills and he's just too tired to fight it. It means nothing though, Seungmin just knows how to appreciate something when he sees it. That's all. _That is all_. 

“I don't know, cute, maybe,” Felix says and finds a seat in the back of the bleachers. “Oh! A nice smile, I like smiles,” Felix’s face lights up at his revelation and Seungmin slowly starts forgetting about the annoying president, focusing on his best friend. 

“You know, ever since you started here you haven't liked someone, at least not enough for a crush to last,” Seungmin says and sits beside Felix, bringing his knees up to his chest. 

“Yeah,” Felix tilts his head. “I haven't.” 

“There was Jeno last year,” Seungmin quickly says, suddenly remembering and bringing up the baseball player. 

“Everyone liked Jeno last year,” Felix just giggles, nudging his shoulder against Seungmins. “You liked him a bit too.” 

“Well, of course, everyone liked Jeno,” Seungmin counters, and it just results in the both of them laughing. 

They're both quiet for a second, looking out into the field and watching the players. Then suddenly, Felix turns and looks at Seungmin. 

“I’m really not sure my type, I haven't really liked someone since I moved here, and whenever I do it never lasts.” Felix plays with his shoelaces, briefly looking between the torn ends of his laces and Seungmin. “I want to like someone though, I miss it, the hopeless pinning.” 

“You miss the hopeless pinning?” Seungmin barks out a laugh and looks at his friend incredulously. 

“You know!” Felix quips, “like just liking someone, everything they do just makes you feel so much, and sure it can suck sometimes, but overall, it’s nice! It’s nice to like someone!” Felix waves his arms around passionately, trying his best to prove his point with his flying arms. 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Seungmin smiles, remembering last year when he was crushing on Chan. How just making eye contact with him sent his stomach in somersaults, how he jumped for any chance to talk to Chan. How he would have done anything to get the chance to look Chan in the eyes just for a couple of seconds.

Like how whatever Minho does irks his very being and makes him go crazy. 

Why did he just think of _Minho_? His thought enters his brain like a bucket of ice-cold water getting dunked over his head and he jolts in his seat. 

“Ugh, now I can't stop thinking about it,” Felix whines. He lets his head fall into his hands and starts fake sobbing into them, his shoulders shaking. 

“About what?” Seungmin asks, his mind hazy, his thoughts beginning to get jumbled and he can't remember if what he felt for Minho was for Chan or Chan for Minho. He kinda wants to bang his head against the bleachers. 

“Liking someone,” Felix answers, bringing his head up from his hands to squint at Seungmin. “We were just talking about it.” 

“Oh right, yeah, yeah, I remember,” Seungmin breathes out, his words coming out way too breathless for him to just be sitting down. He felt almost winded by the onslaught of his thoughts. A knot had formed in his stomach, twisting his insides, yet it wasn't entirely uncomfortable. 

“I wonder when I’ll like someone again,” Felix whispers out like he was talking mainly to himself and ignoring Seungmin’s obviously weird behavior.

“I wonder when _I’ll_ like someone again,” Seungmin says, fixing his eyes back out to the field, spotting Minho out on the field talking to some of the players. Seungmin doesn't see it, but Felix gives him an unconvincing look. 

“Seungmin, you are one of the smartest people I know, but you are fucking dense man,” Felix blurts, causing Seungmin to look away from the field and to his best friend with wide eyes. 

“Huh?”

“Someday Seung, someday you will understand, and it’s going to hit you like a fucking truck,” Felix grins evilly at him, a glint in his eye that Seungmin really did not trust at all. Felix may be the embodiment of sunshine, but he was still one of the most mischievous people he knew. 

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Seungmin glares at this best friend distrustfully. 

“You’ll see,” Felix sing-songs, the grin on his face the pure definition of mischief. 

“Felix, why are you being cryptic?” Seungmin sits up straighter, looking at his best friend warily. 

“You'll see,” Felix repeats, his voice airy, and wiggles his eyebrows at Seungmin. 

“And you'll see me strangle you,” Seungmin deadpans. 

“Ack!” Felix shrieks and scrambles back as Seungmin dives for his neck. 

“Spill you demon!” Seungmin laughs as Felix begins shrieking like a banshee. Everyone on the bleachers stares at them from the amount of noise they make, but they are both used to it. They aren't the quietest pair when they're together.

“Hey! Seungmin! Stop strangling your friends and get to the dugout!” A voice quickly cuts through the air and interrupts Seungmin trying and failing to strangle the wiggling Felix. 

“Yeah! Stop strangling your friend!” Felix shrieks and wiggles out of Seungmins grasp when the younger looks out to the field to see Minho, who had been the one calling him. 

“Listen to Felix!” Minho calls again, a fond looking smile on his face, “the game's about to start, head to the dugout soon.” 

“Okay,” Seungmin calls back, feeling… weird. He is dimly aware of the slight somersaults in his stomach from being caught trying to strangle Felix by Minho. 

When Seungmin looks back at Felix, the lavender haired boy is giving him the same knowing look as earlier. 

“What?” Seungmin squints at his friend. 

“Oh, nothing,” Felix says carelessly, pretending to fling hair over his shoulder.

“Do you want to get strangled again?” Seungmin quirks an eyebrow at him. 

“Minho said not to,” Felix smirks, giving Seungmin a taste of his own medicine and quirking his own eyebrow. 

“Yah!” Seungmin shrieks, diving forward again. 

“Kim Seungmin!” Minho’s voice shouts, effectively causing Seungmin to stop trying to strangle his friend. 

“Okay, okay! I’m coming!” Seungmin shouts back. “Time to be a ball boy,” he grumbles under his breath. 

“Have fun, ball boy,” Felix teases, pushing Seungmin away and towards the stairs of the bleachers. 

“Trying to get rid of me?” Seungmin glares.

“Duty calls,” Felix raises his hands in surrender. 

Seungmin rolls his eyes, waving his hand in Felix’s direction as he walks down the bleachers. He was going home with Felix anyways, so he wasn't too broken-hearted to leave his friend's side. The only thing that was really holding him back was the knot in his stomach that kept turning into somersaults whenever he saw Minho. He really did dislike Minho that much. 

Seungmin walks into the crowded dugout, all the players already inside getting ready for the game. He smiles at Chenle and Jisung, who were talking in their own world near their equipment. He also smiles at a couple of his classmates and tries to be friendly with all the players, because he was really hoping to get on their good side for when he runs for president next year. He has to have a good relationship with the students to be president, and he didn't mind it at all, in fact, it was something he was looking forward to. 

“You finally joined us,” Minho greets Seungmin from where he was leaning against the chain-link fence, his feline eyes alight with something Seungmin couldn’t really decipher. 

“It is my job,” Seungmin smiles politely, ignoring his stomach that has now started to toss and turn. 

“Which I’m thankful that you do,” Minho says, and Seungmin is caught off guard with the sincerity in his voice. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Seungmin stutters, and it makes the light in Minho’s eyes flame brighter. 

Seungmin begins walking away to where he spots Soobin towards the front of the dugout near the door that leads onto the field, but Minho stops him with a hand on his wrist. Just like earlier, his skin burns. 

“Seungmin, I’m also kind of thankful to get to see you in that uniform,” Minho whispers just loud enough for Seungmin to hear, his eyes locked onto the junior. Seungmin sputters, waiting for Minho to start laughing and tell him it was a joke but it never comes. Seeing the crimson that begins to sneak up Seungmin’s cheeks, Minho smirks and pushes the junior towards the front of the dugout. “Go out there ball boy, they need you.” 

Seungmin watches in complete bewilderment as Minho turns away and walks towards the back of the dugout where the water coolers are situated. Seungmin's gaze travels down and then he's swearing at himself in his head. What the fuck is wrong with him?

Seungmin shakes his head, completely oblivious to his two friends, Chenle and Jisung, whispering about the encounter they just witnessed. He walks towards Soobin, willing the somersaults in his stomach away. 

“Oh, hey Seungmin! Oh? Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost,” Soobin gets out in one breath when he sees Seungmin like the over-enthusiastic bunny he is. It's endearing and helps Seungmin get a little bit of his jumbled _everything_ together. 

“Just, honestly I have no idea,” Seungmin says and Soobin nods his head with wide eyes like he wants the junior representative to continue, but Seungmin really has no idea what to say. 

Suddenly the whistle from the umpire startles him, and one of the players' wiggles around Seungmin to get out of the dugout. He suddenly recognizes him as Jeno and calls out, “good luck!”

The rest of the game, Seungmin tries his best to avoid Minho at all costs. His words from earlier ring in his head like a loud confusing bell that he can't understand for the life of him. He cheers when Chenle hits a double, and when Jisung shuts out an entire inning, not letting a single ball go astray. When Chenle and Jisung come back to the dugout, he sticks to them like glue when he's not needed to help out or glued to Soobin’s side. He misses all the looks the two of them share. Soobin quizzes him a couple more times when he zones out or tries really hard to avoid Minho, but he just plays dumb. 

And at one point when Seungmin finally looks back at the student president like he has been dying to do the entire game, Minho is staring right back at him. After that, Seungmin tries even harder to not look back again, but at times he can feel a curious gaze following his every move. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> phew can you imagine minho in a baseball uniform? damn would i like to see that! well, i hope you enjoyed chapter two! leave a comment and a kudos please give me attention i crave it <3
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)
> 
> update! here is some AMAZING [fanart](https://twitter.com/koalaquarelle/status/1325859601116434433?s=20) based off of 2min in their baseball uniforms! please go give it lots of love!!


	3. chapter three

“See you, Seungmin!” Lia waves goodbye to Seungmin as she slings her book bag over her shoulder, walking out of their classroom with another one of their classmates. He thinks it's her girlfriend, but he can't remember if they ever made anything official. They sure act like girlfriends though. 

“Bye!” Seungmin quickly says from where he's crouched at his bookbag, organizing his belongings as much as he can before he leaves to Mr. Song's room for the meeting. The weekend blew through like a blur like it usually did. Already it was time for the meeting after school for the assembly. 

They won the game on Friday night and had a celebration at a local barbecue place afterward. Like the baseball game, Seungmin spent the night avoiding Minho. 

He spent his weekend studying as usual. Saturday night Felix managed to drag him from his room and they went out for ice cream, but besides that, he stayed in his room studying. When he wasn't studying, he was bent over his laptop writing.

The meeting would go by pretty quickly. He didn’t expect much since most of the assembly was already decided beforehand by the principal and the school board. Plus the sports that were in season and dance team always got time which only left a bit for the student council to plan. Usually, it was just to promote something, and Seungmin was planning to announce his plan on promoting the bake sale during the meeting. 

He had written all his notes down over the weekend to make sure his proposal was perfect since Minho liked to question absolutely everything he did. He had even presented them to Felix for practice and his friend had given him wonderful applause afterward. He was pretty confident in it too, he was positive that the rest of the council would agree with his plans. 

It was simple, straight forward, and well thought out to be absolutely perfect. 

He goes over his plan for the bake sale while walking to Mr. Songs’ classroom. It was practically second nature for Seungmin to walk to Mr. Song’s room from his class. He did it so much he was sure that he could do it with his eyes closed and on muscle memory alone. And just like usual, he was in front of Mr. Song’s door before he knew it. 

“Hey,” Seungmin calls as he steps inside, the familiar shift of temperature in Mr. Song’s room comforting him. Mr. Song always had his room colder than Seungmin’s class, so the shift was always prominent for him. Over time, the shift had become comforting. 

“Hey Seungmin,” Renjun looks up from his phone when Seungmin enters, smiling prettily. Seungmin has always found Renjun to be exceptionally pretty, something in the shape of his eyes and the way he smiled. He was always surprised he never ended up crushing on him like so many others do. 

“Hey Minnie,” Soobin smiles brightly, his eyes shooting up into his familiar eye smiles. 

“How was your guys' day?” Seungmin greets them, sitting between them in his designated spot at the table. 

“Boring,” Renjun supplies, typing away at his phone.

“We did a lab in physics today, which was fun,” Soobin says, starting to move his hands around animatedly. 

Seungmin listens as Soobin begins recounting his physics class. Talking to Soobin was always nice, he was always so animated and just fun to listen to. He never did something halfway, always going fully in, and Seungmin really admires it. 

Soobin makes the time go by fast, and before he knows it, it's time to begin the meeting. Chaeryeong runs in late, just before Mr. Song was about to start the meeting, spouting a bunch of apologies that Mr. Song deems unnecessary. Seungmin briefly thinks about how much he really loves the student council. 

“Okay, now that everyone’s here let’s get started!” Mr. Song begins. Everyone stops their conversations and gets ready for the meeting, shifting into their student council positions. Seungmin has been ready since he walked in. 

Mr. Song is one of the youngest teachers at their school. Just under a decade older than most of them, which was really young for their school because they had a lot of older teachers. More than a few students had already begun placing bets for when some of them would retire. 

“This time we only have a couple of things to work on, we have a lot of sports announcements this assembly, and the principal has a rather long announcement, not leaving a lot of room for us,” Mr. Song reads out from the paper in front of him. Seungmin taps his pencil idly on the notebook he has spread out in front of him, anxious to share his idea. It's full of all his notes for his idea, complete with color coding and small annotations in the margins. 

“We just need to assign who will announce the teams and then what should be a ten-minute spot in the end, which depending on how well the assembly goes, will determine how long that spot really is,” Mr. Song looks up from his notes to see everyone listening attentively to him. This is it, that is his time frame for his idea, Seungmin thinks. 

“So who wants to take the announcements?” Mr. Song clicks his pen and it's like music to Seungmin’s ears, and he responds by clicking his own, ready to take notes. 

“We have, both male and female lacrosse teams, both male and female tennis teams including co-ed, baseball team, softball team, and then the dance team which will be performing a 5-minute routine,” Mr. Song lists out, and Seungmin knows exactly which team he wants to announce.

Seungmin raises his hand just a bit before talking, “I would like to announce the dance team.”

“Great, Seungmin will announce the dance team, anyone else wants to claim any announcements?” Mr. Song asks, writing Seungmin’s name down next to the dance slot. 

Seungmin smiles, glad he gets to announce the dance team Felix was on. Felix had gushed to Seungmin over their ice cream date over the weekend about how excited he was to perform. The dance team had been working tirelessly on this routine, as they planned to enter a competition with it at the end of the year. Seungmin was excited for them.

In the next couple minutes, Dahyun claims the lacrosse teams, her eyes lighting up when she was able to snag them. Next, Daehwi claims the soccer teams, Renjun claims the tennis teams, Minho claims the baseball team, and Jiwoo claims the softball team.

Then it came down to the last ten minutes of the assembly. Seungmin waits with bated breath for Mr. Song to start talking again. 

“Alright, Jiwoo do you have all of that down?” Mr. Song looks up from his own notes to Jiwoo. 

“Yes, sir,” Jiwoo nods back, her notebook looking lovely like usual with all the pretty colored notes. Seungmin is amazed she can take such perfect and pretty notes in the moment. The only time he can get his notes to look good is when he copies his haphazardly-made ones into new, carefully organized ones.

“Everyone has everything they wanted to write down as well?” Mr. Song asks and everyone responds with resounding hums of approval. 

“Awesome!” Mr. Song claps his hands together happily. “Now, time to discuss what to do for the last ten minutes, does anyone have any ideas?” 

Seungmin’s arm shoots up, reaching for the stars. 

“Alright, Seungmin, let’s hear your idea,” Mr. Song chuckles at Seungmin’s enthusiasm. 

Seungmin clears his throat, excited to finally share his idea. “I was thinking we could use that time to help increase support for our bake sale next weekend,” Seungmin begins. 

“As Renjun and Chaeryeong have both talked about,” Seungmin nods to both members, “ever since we started to promote on social media, more people have been attending our school activities, and since we have more attendance, I was thinking if we show a detailed video about our bake sale and what we will be providing, we will have a better turnout, which in turn will help bring more support to our school through the bake sale.” 

“Very well said, Seungmin, that sounds like a wonderful idea,” Mr. Song smiles at him approvingly, and Seungmin beams. 

“I like your idea Seungmin,” Minho suddenly says, catching Seungmin off guard. Minho never supports his ideas so clearly. Minho has his usual soft smile on his face and Seungmin stares at him, not trusting him at all. “I agree, it could really help with bringing attention to the bake sale.” 

“Although,” Minho says and locks eyes with him, and Seungmin's blood runs cold. “I think I have a better idea.” Seungmin grits his teeth, and feels Soobin place a hand on his knee, almost as if to hold him back from the outburst that's sure to come. 

“Everyone loves music, I’m positive we can all agree on that,” Minho slips on his perfect president attitude, completely captivating. Seungmin is once again reminded why Minho is the perfect president. It just makes him angrier. 

“School events can be boring, especially if all there's going to be is a speech and announcing the school teams,” Minho speaks coolly, entrancing, everyone hanging onto his every word. “We have the dance team performing, which everyone always loves, but I know something that can definitely secure the best turnout for our assembly.

“I know a group that not only has thousands of listeners on their soundcloud, but also has fans that are the majority of our student body, who would love to perform one of their songs at the end of the assembly.” Minho smiles confidently, and Seungmin wants to punch him. 

“I know it doesn't seem like it would be beneficial when you just look at the surface, but with the increase of attendance from 3RACHA, the group, we will be able to show off all of our sports teams to the students for more attendance at games and show off our dance team so their performances can generate more attendance, and overall make the assembly a better experience so more people are likely to attend the next one,” Minho says, and looks around to all the student council members in turn. Seungmin looks around himself and sees most everyone nodding in agreement, and looking pleased with what Minho is saying. Seungmin feels like he's going to throw up. 

“But how will this affect the bake sale?” Seungmin counters and Minho's attention snaps to the junior representative. Minho doesn't look at all surprised that Seungmin had questioned him. 

“Easy,” Minho just shrugs and looks away nonchalantly, “we will announce the bake sale at the beginning of the assembly, so everyone will hear about it, which will lead to more attendance, because who doesn't love treats?”

Seungmin can feel his blood boiling when Minho stops talking. Seungmin is  _ mad _ . Mad that Minho once again talked over his idea. Mad that he spent so much time perfecting his idea. Writing notes, rewriting the notes, practicing, doing everything to make it perfect, only for it to be brushed under the dust. Mad that it's Minho,  _ again _ , brushing his idea under the dust. Mad that his idea that he was so confident in got completely forgotten so easily. Mad at his feelings. Mad that it's always  _ Minho _ .  _ Minho _ .  _ Minho _ .  _ Minho _ . 

“Now that’s just stupid,” Seungmin blurts, and Minho’s head whips around to him, evident shock on his face. Seungmin feels his ears heat up a little when he notices the attention of the room all go to him. Minho and he fought a lot and usually got into disagreements about their ideas whenever they had their meetings, but Seungmin was never this blunt. But then again, Seungmin was never this mad.

“Excuse me?” Minho asks, eyebrows furrowed and looking at Seungmin with disbelief in his eyes. 

Seungmin gulps, not used to that type of look from Minho, feeling slightly sobered from his anger, but he still continues. “That’s just stupid, just having some students perform some song won’t guarantee more attendance, instead we should be taking that time to give detailed information about the bake sale that could result in more attendance which would mean more revenue.” 

“It’s not just some song,” Minho says, his voice small. Seungmin looks over to Minho, his turn to be shocked at the president's unusual manner. His anger slowly fizzles out but still simmers underneath his skin. Then he remembers his notes, still sitting in front of him, color-coded with annotation in the margarine, and he's mad again.

“I agree with Seungmin, I think it could be more beneficial if we took that time to go into depth about the bake sale, but I also agree with Minho, students are more likely to come to the assembly if there is something they're actually going to actually like, and 3RACHA’s performance can be just that,” Seonghwa quickly interrupts Seungmin and Minho, jumping between them before whatever was going on could get worse. His attempt was futile. 

“Exactly, having 3RACHA perform will guarantee more attendance which will further give attention to the other things we will be showing during the assembly,” Minho speaks up to the room, though his gaze is locked on Seungmin, eyes narrowed. “The bake sale doesn’t need that much promotion.” 

Now, Seungmin takes pride in his self-control, even when he was feeling so intensely like he was now. But when someone blatantly attacks him like Minho was doing now he gladly throws it all out of the window. 

“Why would you have some random stupid idiots perform when we could use that time to do good and actually useful things,” Seungmin blurts, his mouth working faster than his brain. He instantly regrets it when he sees the hurt in Minho’s eyes. Seungmin has never seen such emotion on Minho, and it scares him a little. Not just the fear, but how much Seungmin seems to care.

“Stupid idiots?” Minho scoffs, the sadness leaving his eyes, and a hard edge replaces them. It’s clear that Minho has also thrown his self-control out the window. “You know Seungmin, I always thought you were pretty smart, but I guess I was wrong.” Minho shrugs carelessly, his words fully intended to hurt. 

“Guys,” Dahyun quickly tries to interrupt, but Seungmin is already ready for a comeback. 

“What? I’m sorry your precious pride is hurt because I called you out on your obviously stupid idea,” Seungmin retorts, his fists clenched together under the table in his anger. He can see Renjun and Soobin giving him warning looks from the corner of his eyes, but he couldn't care less at the moment. He was too mad.

“You think I’m upset because of my pride? Oh yeah, you are really showing how stupid you are now,” Minho rolls his eyes, responding immediately to him. 

“You? Calling me stupid? Now that’s rich,” Seungmin lashes back just as fast.

“Listen here, you-” Minho starts, his voice rising from its angry calm but Mr. Song interrupts him. 

“Okay, that's enough you two,” Mr. Song speaks over Minho, his voice hard and finalizing, unlike his usual friendly tone. 

“He fucking started it,” Seungmin says maturely. 

“Mr. Kim!” Mr. Song gasps. 

Minho giggles. “Deserved.” 

“That's it!” Mr. Song full-on shouts, startling everyone in the room. Soobin jumps from beside him at their advisors shout. “I have put up with you two and your disagreements this school year, but I will not put up with this petty argument.” Mr. Song fixes a glare on the two of them. “You both have been disrespectful and I am taking away your votes for this assembly. Both of you out of the classroom, now.” 

And then the room is silent. Everyone's eyes on Mr. Song. Seungmin feels his entire body turn to ice, the repercussions of what he's done becoming painfully aware to him. 

“ _ Now _ .” Mr. Song repeats himself when the two of them just sit and stare at him. Seungmin scrambles out of his chair, almost tripping on his bookbag in the process. Seungmin miraculously gets himself out of the classroom without falling over, his limbs shaking in shock of what had just happened. Mr. Song follows the two of them out of the room, slamming the door after them. The sound of the door slamming vibrates through his whole body, shaking him to his very core.

Seungmin has never gotten in trouble before. Never. Not from his parents, teachers, or any authoritative figure. He has always been a perfect student, perfect kid, perfect anything. He didn't feel so perfect now. Seungmin suddenly feels like crying, or throwing something; preferably himself against a wall. 

“Fuck,” Minho swears under his breath, bringing his presence known again to Seungmin. All the anger Seungmin had been feeling before that was muted from his shock, now slowly started peaking at the edges of his brain. He was mad, but he was also in shock, completely dumbfounded at what just happened. There was just a tiny bit of sadness too, but that just made him confused. He really wasn't sure what to even feel.

“Fuck!” Minho says louder, banging his head against the wall opposite of the door. His face was scrunched up, almost like he was in pain, but not from banging his head against the wall. It made Seungmin madder. 

“I still think we should have done the video about the bake sale,” Seungmin says through his teeth, the anger from earlier coming out from the depth of his brain and to the surface. He felt like yelling again, even though he knew he really shouldn't. 

“Seungmin,” Minho sighs, and Seungmin’s a little surprised at just how tired he sounds. It doesn't help to quell his anger though, it just works to boil his blood further. 

“What?” Seungmin quips, turning towards Minho to glare at him, “gonna try to convince me again that letting those stupid idiots perform was a good idea?” 

“Seungmin! Just shut the fuck up!” Minho whips around from the wall, his voice raised and hard. His brown eyes seeming to be on fire, slowly simmering beneath his irises like he was still trying to hold himself back even though he had let some of the fire out. 

Seungmin stares at Minho with wide eyes. He had seen so many new sides of Minho that day he honestly felt a little overwhelmed. Despite everything, he was still angry. 

“You’re just mad I’m right,” Seungmin bites back. 

“No! Seungmin you have no idea what you’re talking about!” Minho yells, his voice echoing in the hallway. 

Seungmin jumps, startled by the ferocity and volume in Minho's voice, and how it was directed right at him. His heart beats against his ribcage, and Seungmin is almost scared it’ll bruise his ribs.

“If we promoted the bake sale we could really help get more funding for our school-“ Seungmin continues, not ready to back down, but Minho's booming voice doesn't let him. 

“For the dean to do what?” Minho’s voice bellows through the hallway, and Seungmin feels like he might drown in it. “Waste it all on the sports teams? That's all this fucking school does! I have been trying to persuade the dean to move founding more into the student body as a whole than the stupid fucking sports teams!”

“But-” Seungmin sputters feeling like a fish out of water.

“But what Seungmin? Have you ever thought about taking the time to think? To, I don’t know, use that stupid brain of yours?” Minho barks, his eyes hard. “Do you think I am dumb enough to just waste that ten minutes on something useless? I’m the fucking president, of course, I wouldn't!”

“I, I,” Seungmin stumbles over his words, feeling minuscule under Minho’s gaze, practically able to feel the anger that was rolling off of him. If he wasn't careful, he felt like he could drown. 

“And those stupid idiots you were talking about,” A smile curves its way onto Minho’s lips, it's sickeningly sweet, pretty on the outside but deadly on the inside. “They are my best friends, and maybe if you took more time to learn about them you would know they are incredibly talented musicians who deserve more recognition.”

“And did you know that Zhong Chenle’s dad is the Chinese Ambassador of an entertainment company?” Minho asks, and at the mention of one of his friends, Seungmin blanches. He didn't know that. 

“Or did you know that Jisung, one of the rappers in 3RACHA, his parents are going to kick him out when he graduates because they don't support him pursuing his passions in music? And that if Chenle mentions them to his dad it could literally save him from living on the streets?” Minho continues, his voice as hard as steel. 

“You didn’t, so I’m so so so sorry I didn’t vote for your stupid little bake sale thing to help my best friend. You didn't know because I am the president of the student council, I learn these things to help the students in our school. I get it that you are most likely going to be president next year, but right now you aren’t, I am, so just fuck off Seungmin.” Minho practically growls the last sentence, his eyes narrowed at Seungmin.

“I really thought you were better than this,” Minho says, his voice losing its hard edge but dropping into a condescending tone. It makes a knot form in Seungmin’s throat. 

“But, but, the bake sale,” Seungmin whispers, completely unsure of everything that was going on. 

“Fuck, Seungmin,” Minho sighs, ”for once, can you just please fucking shut up? Sure, you are right, if we give more light and information about the bake sale it will make students more interested to go, but you also know all that money that will be gained from the bake sale will just be thrown at the fucking baseball team and the rest of the sports, it won’t be actually used for anything good, and you know that.”

“Well maybe if we gather enough money-” Seungmin tries to say, but again, Minho doesn't let him. 

“No, Seungmin, no,” Minho says, but he doesn't sound mad anymore, just tired. “No matter how much money we acquire the dean is just going to fucking throw it at the baseball team.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Seungmin quickly interjects, still trying, but he really doesn't even know why he's still trying to fight back. He’s lost all his anger, now he just feels… empty. 

“Yes, I do!” Minho yells again, closing his eyes and taking a shaky breath. “Because for the past fucking month, I have been having weekly meetings with the dean trying to fucking convince that dumbass to move more funding into the students.”

“What?” Seungmin breathes out, processing Minho's words. He had been doing what?

“Yeah, because I actually want to do something for this stupid school that only gives a shit about money,” Minho yells again throwing his hands in the air. This time his yell wasn't fully directed at him, and Seungmin was very thankful for that. 

“This school barely does shit for the scholarship kids, making them pay for their books, their meal, their uniforms, almost everything, even if they know the students can't afford it,” Minho spits out each word like it's poison on his tongue, throwing his hands around to accentuate his point. 

“I, I don't, I don't know,” Seungmin stutters, unsure what he could even say to the student president in front of him. 

“Of course you don't know,” Minho says, his icy gaze going back to Seungmin. 

Suddenly, Minho barks out a laugh, but it's completely void of any humor. “God, I can't do this.” 

That's when Seungmin notices it, and he gets hit with a feeling stronger than anything he has felt that day. Tears collect at Minho's waterline, making his eyes glisten like diamonds. Minho has always had pretty eyes, but something about the tears catching at his waterline just makes his dark eyes breathtaking. Seungmin isn't even surprised that Minho is a pretty crier. 

“Whatever, you're hopeless,” Minho says barely above a whisper. Before Seungin could even react, Minho is turning and running down the hall, his shoulder shaking and not just from running. 

“Wait!” Seungmin calls out, not wanting Minho to leave yet. He doesn't want Minho to cry. This was not how it was supposed to go. 

“Minho!” Seumgin calls again, but Minho doesn't look back. 

Seungmin stands in shock, watching as Minho’s back retreats until he turns a corner and the president is no longer in sight. 

Seungmin stands there, for how long he doesn't know, his mind whirling, playing their argument back like on tape. Trying to find where he went wrong, where they went wrong. But really, they went wrong _everywhere_. Seungmin, for once, has no idea what to do. 

Eventually, the door to Mr. Songs’ classroom opens, and Renjun peaks his head out. 

“The meeting is over,” Renjun says awkwardly like he feels weird talking to Seungmin about the meeting he was just kicked out of. 

“Yeah, okay,” Seungmin says, feeling like a robot. 

Renjun comes out a little further, looks down both hallways, and then says to Seungmin, “where did Minho go?” 

Seungmin gulps, looking up and casting his blank eyes at Renjun. “I have no idea,” is all Seungmin can supply. 

Seungmin has never felt as hopeless as he does now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ): yeah im sad too, but keep reading! i promise you'll be smiling soon! hope you enjoyed chapter three! leave a comment please i crave attention <3
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)


	4. chapter four

Day6 blasts through Seungmin’s headphones, Wonpils voice melodic in his ears. It eased his nerves, just enough to let him breathe without feeling like he was suffocating. 

It was Wednesday night. The waning moon was high in the night sky, glaring beautifully into the darkness of his city. Cool air ruffles through his hair as he waits at a stoplight, watching the lights switch from green to yellow. Seungmin waits for the light to turn red and when it does, he walks across the street without pause. 

Seungmin had been in the middle of singing his sorrows out to the saddest Day6 songs when Felix called him. It was quick, his deep voice rumbling through the phone, “meet me at Byeol at 8, don't be late.”

Usually, he would have declined Felix’s invitation to go out on a school night. It made him anxious when he didn't use all the time he had to study. But ever since Monday, he’s felt…different, and it's obvious that the people around him have noticed.

Seungmin knows that's why Felix invited him out. Felix knows about Seungmin's obsession with studying, and wouldn't have asked him out unless he absolutely needed to. Seungmin always lets Felix drag him away on the weekends, he always leaves those days open for his friends. So it was definitely a special circumstance for tonight. 

His feet pad along the familiar streets of his city, the soft sound of his shoes against the cool concrete match the beat to the Day6 song playing in his ears, forming the perfect backtrack to his swarming thoughts.

Around the time Felix and Seungmin first met, they had run into each other at Byeol. It was a family-owned barbeque place, Seungmin's parents knew the owners, and it was just a ten-minute walk from his home. He came here frequently with his parents, and one day when he was picking up some food before he headed home, he ran into Felix. They had ended up eating together, and Seungmin liked to think that that was the true start of their friendship. 

The bell jingles familiarly when he opens the door to Byeol, a lone head perks up at the sound. 

“Hey, Donghyuck,” Seungmin smiles at the waiter leaning against the register, looking like Seungmin had just startled him out of a little cat nap. 

“Seungmin,” Donghyuck grins, his light brown hair bobbing when he places a hand on his hip in his signature pose as he stands up straight. The light from the dangling mason jar lights dances off the colorful strands in his hair and Seungmin smiles at the familiarity. “Long time no see, buddy.” 

Seungmin laughs, feeling lighter than he has in a while and slides into the booth in the back with the creaky seats. It was really wonders just how comforting Byeol was for him. 

“Are you the only one here tonight?” Seungmin leans back in the booth, casting his eyes to the door, anxious for Felix’s arrival, before tracing them back to Donghyuck. 

“Yep, 'rents left me in charge for the night,” Donghyuck says and walks over, sliding into the seat opposite of him. “Said they were gonna have some, ‘quality time together.’” He finishes his sentence with finger quotes. 

“Good for them, they deserve it,” Seungmin places an elbow on the top of the booth and rests his chin in the palm of his hand. 

“Oh they do,” Donghyuck sighs fondly, “but, I should at least get paid more, like I’m breaking my back here,” Donghyuck whines, placing a hand on his back and stretching like a cat. 

Seungmin laughs, and the knot that had been permanently in his stomach since Monday doesn't feel as heavy anymore. 

“So,” Donghyuck finishes his stretching, and fixes Seungmin with an inquisitive look, “whatcha doing here on a weekday?” 

“Meeting Felix,” Seungmin shrugs, trying his best to avoid Donghyuck's seeing gaze. Donghyuck was one of the smartest people Seungmin knew. He knew that Donghyuck could read right through him.

Seungmin has known Donghyuck since they were kids, their parents being friends which helped start their friendship. They were never in the same classes, and their schedules were never in sync, from Donghyuck working at the restaurant at nights and Seungmin always doing student council activities. Despite that, they had always been close and found time to spend time with each other outside of their busy schedules. 

Suddenly, the familiar chime of the bell sounds from the front, and Donghyuck pipes up, “speaking of the devil, hey Felix!”

Felix walks in, pushing down the hood of his hoodie and pulling down his face mask revealing a beaming smile. “Donghyuck, I haven't seen you in so long!”

“We saw each other last week,” Donghyuck rolls his eyes. 

“Exactly,” Felix grins, walking over, “too long.” 

“I’m just that irresistible I guess,” Donghyuck says, flipping his imaginary hair over his shoulder. 

“Totally,” Seungmin supplies, rolling his eyes affectionately. 

It's Donghyuck’s turn to laugh, and he slides out from the booth, gesturing to Felix to sit. “You guys want your usual?” 

“That would be wonderful,” Felix answers, taking his seat at the booth. 

“Be right back,” Donghyuck winks and heads to the back 

“How was the walk here?” Felix asks, ruffling his fading lavender hair. It stuck up in a couple of places cutely when he was done, and Seungmin smiled at him fondly. 

“It was nice,” Seungmin answers.

Felix shuffles a bit in his seat, almost like he was getting ready for something, and Seungmin watches him warily, waiting for the moment that he knows will eventually come. 

“I think you know why I called you tonight,” Felix finally says, looking up into Seungmin’s gaze. 

“Yeah, I think I do,” Seungmin says and plays with the cord to his earphones still attached to his phone, looking away and avoiding Felix’s gaze. 

“What's wrong, Seungie?” Felix inquires, reaching a hand out and placing it on top of his. Seungmin finally looks up and he meets Felix’s eyes. His best friend was looking at him with so much concern in his eyes that Seungmin almost felt guilty for worrying his friend so much. 

A part of him thinks, keep it in, keep your feelings in, and don't tell a soul. Another part tells him to just let it all out, to be free of the weight on his shoulders. He decides to listen to the latter. 

Seungmin groans and lets his head fall till his forehead meets the booth with a thud. “I’m not perfect,” he grumbles out, just barely loud enough for Felix to hear. 

“Nobody's perfect, Seungmin,” Felix immediately reacts, supportive best friend mode on, and reaches out to thread his fingers through Seungmin's hair, petting through the strands comfortingly. 

“I know, but, I thought I was pretty damn close to it,” Seungmin sighs and lifts his head up, not meeting Felix’s eyes. His shoulders hunch in, his usually straight posture dropping. Seungmin has always thought that he was exemplary. Most times he felt like he was pretty damn close to perfect. He has always been a confident person, but after… everything… he's lost that confidence. It terrified him.

“What makes you think that you aren't anymore?” Felix asks, twirling one of Seungmins longer strands of hair between his fingers.

“I fought with Minho,” Seungmin ducks his head a little, shyly looking up at Felix to gauge his reaction. Felix drops his hand from twirling Seungmin hair, looking confused. 

“You always fight with Minho though?” Felix questions, tilting his head, looking a little bit like a cat. 

Seungmin sighs. It was true, he always fought with Minho, everyone knew. It was just... they had never fought like  _ that _ . That was a real fight. During meetings they always just debated over their ideas, they could call it fighting but it was never out of anger. That fight was. It was pure anger on both parts. “This one... It was different,” Seungmin answers. 

“What was so different about this fight?” 

“I said things, he said things,” Seungmin admits, scratching at a piece of skin on his thumb anxiously. “I think I hurt him.” 

Felix doesn't say anything for a moment, and then another. Seungmin brings his gaze up, the turning in his stomach not ceasing at Felix’s sudden silence. When Seungmin meets his friend's gaze, something seems to click in Felix’s dark brown eyes. 

“Seungmin, can I tell you something?” Felix asks his eyebrows slightly furrowed. 

“Yeah,” Seungmin responds hesitantly, “what is it?”

“Well,” Felix says and casts his eyes up like he was in thought, mulling over his next words, “I have never thought that you and Minho’s relationship was just, well, fighting.” 

“What do you mean?” Seungmin blanches, trying to understand where Felix was going with what he was saying. 

“You care about Minho,” Felix says bluntly, without any hesitation. “I know you do, it's clear to see that you care about him and what he thinks.”

“Well, he is the  _ president _ ,” Seungmin argues. 

“Sure, but that doesn't dismiss the fact that you  _ care _ ,” Felix says with complete clarity. 

Seungmin frowns. Of course, he cared what Minho thought, he was the student body present for crying out loud, but the way Felix was talking, this care seemed different. 

“I think you need to reevaluate how you feel about Minho,” Felix leans forward and fixes a look on Seungmin that he can't get out of. “How you feel about the fight, about everything, because you are clearly hurt with what happened between you two.” 

Just as Felix finishes, Donghyuck comes out from the back with a big tray, topped with beef and Seungmin and Felix’s favorite vegetables and noodles. Donghyuck leaves the tray with them, giving them utensils and drinks, before heading to the back with a wink saying he had to call his boyfriend.

Seungmin’s mouth waters at the sight of the food, remembering he forgot to eat dinner earlier. 

“I know it's a touchy subject, so I will stop pressing,” Felix starts again, picking up his chopsticks, “I wanted to make sure you are okay, and help you where I can.” Felix smiles at Seungmin and then starts piling the vegetables onto the barbeque. 

“Thank you, Felix,” Seungmin says in a small voice, picking up his own chopsticks. 

“Of course Seungmin,” Felix smiles, his eyes soft. “You don't need to do anything if you don't want to, or even listen to what I’ve said, I just gave you my view as a spectator of your antics for the past year.” 

Seungmin felt like crying. He really loved his best friend. 

“Now that I’ve got all that out!” Felix claps his hands together, a large smile overtaking his soft features, “I'm starving so let's please start cooking this meat, and,” Felix points his chopsticks accusingly at Seungmin, “I’ve missed my best friend, and I have so many stories to tell you.” 

Felix pops a piece of asparagus in his mouth, his eyes wide and watching the meat sizzle on the grill, and Seungmin smiles. 

“Alright, Lix,” Seungmin takes a piece of beef between his chopstick and flips it, “tell me everything.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love felix. this is my favorite chapter in the entire fic. i loved adding donghyuck and giving seunglix a little place to escape when they needed <3 i hope you enjoyed chapter four! give me attention pls ill give you a cookie
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)


	5. chapter five

Friday. The day of the assembly. The day Seungmin had been dreading to his very core since Monday. The days had gone by so quickly. Especially after he met up with Felix. It blew by in a blur and the next thing he knew he was waking up on Friday morning with dread in his stomach. 

Seungmin hadn’t talked to Minho since their fight, and the president hadn’t even acknowledged his existence. It was weird, and somehow, it made Seungmin sad. He missed the attention that he never even realized he had gotten from Minho. It was a feeling he had never experienced, and especially not with Lee Minho. 

Ever since his talk with Felix, he’s tried to think about Minho, his feelings for him, his feelings about the fight. Everything about Lee Minho seemed to be new for Seungmin now. Minho wasn't just the student body president that got under his skin and knew how to press all his buttons anymore. Minho was different now. 

Seungmin isn't sure how, but he came up with some obscured vision of Minho in his head this past year. The Minho Seungmin thought he knew wasn't the real Minho, some made-up vision Seungmin had set out to hate. To say the least, he doesn’t think hate was what he felt for Minho. 

“Hey there, are you okay?” A voice interrupts his thought, and Seungmin looks up from where he was sitting at a lone desk, spotting Dahyun leaning against the doorway to Mr. Songs’ room just a little ways away. He had been sitting there since he left his classroom, leaving earlier than he was supposed to with the excuse that they had extra preparations. The student council members got to skip the end of their class before the assembly, and Seungmin had dragged his body from his classroom and to Mr. Song's room like a zombie. He had been sitting there doing nothing, just staring at the peeling paint on the opposite wall of the classroom, thinking and thinking. He hadn’t even realized anyone had come in. They weren't even supposed to meet up in Mr. Song's room, just drop their things off and then head to the gym. Seungmin didn't listen, instead, he decided to hide in Mr. Song's room.

“Huh?” Seungmin says dumbly, his jumbled feelings leaving him confused. 

“You’ve just been sitting there for the past ten minutes doing nothing but staring at the wall, I was getting a little worried,” Dahyun frowns at him, her pretty doe eyes looking concerned. 

“I’m fine,” Seungmin says automatically like his response was preprogrammed, which in reality, it was. It was the dead giveaway that he wasn’t actually fine, and he could tell Dahyun didn’t believe him at all. But, Seungmin didn’t know what else to say. He wasn’t ready to admit that he wasn’t actually okay and that the reason was because of Minho. 

“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay,” Dahyun says and smiles, it's big and pretty, making her eyes crinkle at the edges. Seungmin immediately just feels better when she smiles at him. 

Dahyun and Seungmin weren’t exceptionally close but had worked together a lot that year due to being representatives, and the previous year when she was the historian before Chaeryeong. She had always been a comforting presence to him, and Seungmin was really glad it was Dahyun who found him sulking in Mr. Song's classroom and not any other council member. 

“Thank you Dahyun,” Seungmin smiles back, though it’s small, barely there. “It’s just…” Seungmin begins, but he can’t even bring himself to finish. 

“Is it about Minho?” Dahyun asks when he doesn’t finish and Seungmin eyes whip to her and bug out comically. _How did she know?_ Dahyun gives Seungmin a knowing smile and it makes his ears go red. 

Seungmin sighs, knowing that he can’t escape now. “How did you know?” 

“Well,” Dahyun smiles a little sheepishly and walks over to where Seungmin was sitting, pulling up a chair to sit across from him, “we all kinda heard you guys fighting after Mr. Song kicked you out of the meeting.” 

“What?” Seungmin groans, his face falling into his palms. He could feel heat spread through his face like a small wildfire, the warmth from his cheeks heating his palms. 

“Don’t worry!” Dahyun quickly says as Seungmin whimpers into his palms. “We didn’t hear everything you guys said, we just know you two really… fought.” 

Seungmin sighs. They did. They really did fight. 

“And, you both have been different in the past couple days since the meeting,” Dahyun continues, and Seungmin finally brings himself to look up. 

“It’s not just you two not disagreeing, you guys act like the other doesn’t even exist,” Dahyun says, and she almost looks sad. 

Regrettably, Seungmin had been pretending Minho didn't exist like the president was doing to him. He felt guilty. Absolutely awful. Seungmin had been so terrified at the prospect of having to face Minho after their fight that he had reacted impulsively, something very unlike him. He was ashamed of how he acted towards Minho, and then because he decided to pretend he didn’t even exist. He’s made so many mistakes, Seungmin isn’t sure how he will be able to get out of the hole he’s dug himself into. 

“I feel awful,” Seungmin sighs, and tears of frustration prick at his eyes, and just the fact that he’s about to cry makes him even more frustrated which just makes the tears at his waterline threaten to fall more. 

“I think he does too,” Dahyun says softly, and quickly brings a hand over to wipe away the first tear that slides down Seungmins cheeks. 

“I can’t believe I’m fucking crying over this,” Seungmin chokes on the lump in his throat that grew impossibly fast, just as fast as his tears had snuck upon him. Dahyun stops trying to catch them before they could fall as his tears now steadily run down his cheeks, fast and hot. 

“Hey, it’s okay to cry, Seungmin,” Dahyun smiles reassuringly at Seungmin, dragging her chair around the desk and closer to him to wrap her arm securely over his shoulder. 

So Seungmin cries. It’s like the floodgates of his feelings had opened and released through his tears. He hadn’t even realized just how much of his feelings he’s been holding in since their fight until he could feel them all fall down with his tears. They fall fast and hot and he can feel how hot his face is as the tears leave burning trails down his cheeks. It’s uncomfortable and awful; he’s choking on the lump in his throat and the tears falling down his face, but it's relieving, his feelings finally getting their chance to escape. 

It’s unbelievable really. How he’s crying over someone he swears he hated for most of the school year. Once again, he's faced with that question again. Does he really hate Lee Minho? At least, that’s what he thought. If he hated Minho so much, why was he crying over him? Felix’s words ring through his ears. 

_I think you need to reevaluate how you feel about Minho._

Maybe he did have more feelings he had to work out than he thought. 

He’s not sure how long he’s crying, but Dahyun stays by his side, a comforting hand rubbing up and down his back. When she notices that his tears start to falter and his breathing comes out easier, she whispers, “how are you feeling?” 

“Awful,” Seungmin blubbers out, “but, good, I think, I think I really needed that,” 

“Crying is always good, I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Dahyun smiles, and squeezes Seungmin to her side in a reassuring side hug. 

“Thank you for staying with me,” Seungmin smiles shyly, he feels a little guilty for taking up her time but nonetheless grateful that she stayed. 

“I’m always here if you need to talk Seungmin,” Dahyun brings a hand up and ruffles his bangs, and Seungmin whines a little but still leans into her touch. 

“The assembly starts soon,” Dahyun whispers softly, flattening the bangs she had just ruffled, “do you think you are up to going?” 

“Yes, definitely, I don’t want to miss it,” Seungmin clears his throat and wipes at his burning and wet cheeks. 

“Seungmin, your mental health is more important than the assembly, Mr. Song will understand if you need to miss it,” Dahyun murmurs, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

“I promise Dahyun, I just needed to get that out, I really don’t want to miss the assembly,” Seungmin shakes his head in an attempt to right the swarming thoughts in his mind. It does little to help his muddled brain. 

“Are you sure?” Dahyun frowns.

“Really,” Seungmin smiles reassuringly at the senior representative.

“Okay, then let's clean you up,” Dahyun laughs lightly and gets up from sitting beside Seungmin. He can only assume how much of a mess he looks at the moment from crying so much and so hard. He feels the slightest pain at his temples and knows it from not being used to crying so much. He can't remember the last time he’s cried like that.

Dahyun miraculously takes a hairbrush and tissues out of her bag along with an impressively sized mirror and hands them to Seungmin. 

“I have to go meet up with my girlfriend before the assembly, you can just hold on to my things until the next time you see me,” Dahyun shoots Seungmin one last smile, slinging her bookbag over her shoulder. 

“Thank you so much Dahyun, for everything,” Seugmin says a little small, clutching the hairbrush in his hand with an almost death grip. 

“Anytime Seungmin, really, anytime,” Dahyun smiles softly, her face fond. 

Seungmin watches as Dahyun leaves, smiling after her. 

Before she could walk out of the door, she turns slightly, her soft blond hair swaying off her shoulder. “And Seungmin?” 

“Yeah?” Seungmin perks up, curious.

“I think you should talk to Minho,” Dahyun tilts her head, a soft knowing smile on her face. “I’m sure he feels bad as well and wants to talk to you too.” 

“Okay,” Seungmin stutters, the thought of talking to Minho making a knot in his stomach appear. 

“See you soon!” Dahyun shouts one last time and runs out of the door. 

After Dahyun leaves, it takes a while for Seungmin to fully calm down and get his blazing red cheeks to soften, but after a while, he feels confident that he doesn’t totally look like he just bawled his eyes out. 

Seungmin clutches the tissues and hairbrush in his hands and heads to the bathroom. 

Making sure he's the only one in the bathroom, Seungmin places Dahyun's mirror against the sink at an angle so he can see himself. He starts running the hairbrush through his hair, straightening his ruffled hair. 

As he's fixing his hair he starts to think again. Now, two voices ring in his head. Felix's strong voice telling him to rethink his feelings for Minho, and Dahyun’s concerned one telling him he should talk to Minho. 

Seungmin bends down and splashes water into his face, the cold water refreshing against his still burning cheeks. He breathes out his mouth, expelling all the tension in his chest with the breath. 

He doesn't hate Minho. That has become painfully clear to him. Sure, Minho was probably the most annoying person he's ever met and pissed him off in so many ways, but he couldn't say he hated the student body president. 

It's odd. He’s sworn against Minho for what seems like forever, and now, he cares about Minho more than he would like to admit. Nothing seems to make sense, but… at the same time… it becomes perfectly clear to Seungmin. The reason why he cares so much about Minho questioning his ideas, why he was always so anxious in Minho’s presence. Because he _cared_. He cared what Minho thought. 

He needs to talk to Minho. 

Seungmin walks back to Mr. Song's room, placing the mirror, hairbrush, and extra tissues in his bag to return to Dahyun later. He adjusts his blazer and bangs one last time before finally checking his phone- and oh shit, he’s late. It’s about 40 minutes past the time the assembly was supposed to start, he knows he’s missed the time everyone was supposed to announce the sports teams, and most likely when he was supposed to announce the dance team. Felix is going to wonder where the fuck he is because he’s been talking non stop about how much Seungmin was going to like what the dance team had prepared for the assembly, and he’s missed it. He’s going to have to apologize to Felix and he’s really hoping someone recorded so he can watch because he had been really excited to watch Felix dance. 

Then he starts to really panic because what if Minho is now even madder at him for missing the assembly announcements? What if he gets in trouble with Mr. Song? What if, what if, what if? 

Seungmin is really panicking, running down the halls of the school, almost falling on his ass as he runs down the stairs, because when the fuck was Mr. Song's classroom so fucking far from the gymnasium? It’s not like Mr. Song's room has been on the third floor for the past 3 fucking years. 

He stumbles down the last set of stairs and barrels down to the sports wing. He can hear the music pounding from just a couple hallways away, so maybe he didn’t miss the dance team’s performance. He rounds a corner and he can see the doors to the gymnasium and he skids to a stop, his chest heaving from running down two flights of stairs and sprinting through the endless hallways. There’s a couple of students standing outside and they all give him weird looks but he can’t even begin to care. He fumbles with his bangs trying to right them _again_ and shaking his blazer out _again_ , when he feels like he’s ready, he finally steps into the gym. 

The bleachers are absolutely full, some students even having to sit on the floor in front of the bleacher to fit. Seungmin has never seen the gym so full, not even for the baseball and volleyball games. In the middle of the gym is the dance team. He immediately spots Felix, who just happens to be dancing center at the time and Seungmin can’t contain the smile that overtakes his face at seeing his best friend. The position changes and Seungmin recognizes one of his classmates, Yeji, as she takes center, and Felix steps back. The dance goes on for a couple more seconds before the music ends with a final beat and the dancers all get into their ending positions. 

The bleachers erupt in applause, and Seungmin gladly joins their screams. Almost like Felix could pinpoint Seungmin’s voice in the crowd, the lavender haired boy’s head whips around and zones in on Seungmin. Even from where Seungmin is standing, he can see the week older boy’s features morph into relief. 

“And that was our school's lovely dance team! Thank you guys so much for performing, you all did so amazing!!” Minho’s voice booms throughout the gym and it's Seungmin's turn to whip around in his direction. Minho walks across the gym floor from where he was standing to the side to the middle where the dancers were still in their ending pose. Seungmin can feel his stomach drop when Minho turns just a bit so he can see the bright smile on his face. He looks beautiful when he smiles like that. So yeah, it was Minho who took over Seungmin’s job.

Once the students start to quiet down, the dance team all get up and start moving to the side. Felix breaks away from them and runs up to Seungmin. The junior representative doesn’t have much time to prepare as Felix launches himself at Seungmin. 

“Seungmin! I was so worried when Minho came out to announce us, I had no idea where you were,” Felix frets and holds onto Seungmin tight. Seungmin is thankful for the hug and squeezes the younger back tenfold. 

After a couple of seconds holding onto each other, Felix pulls back. He misses the contact immediately, not realizing how badly he needed a hug from his best friend. 

“Seung? Were you crying?” Felix gasps and his eyebrows furrow when he finally looks at Seungmin’s face after pulling away.

“Yes,” Seungmin says, a little embarrassed that Felix was able to tell so quickly. He thought he was able to hide it.

“What? Are you okay? We can leave if you want,” Felix starts talking a mile a minute, ready to pull Seungmin away from the crowd and somewhere he could be more comfortable if needed.

“It’s okay, I’m good now, I promise,” Seungmin assures his best friend, though he can still feel a slight throb at his temples and the ghost of the knot that was in his throat earlier. 

“Are you sure?” Felix asks worriedly. Seungmin can see that Felix doesn’t much believe him and that nothing he could say will probably reassure his best friend, so he focuses on the truth. 

“I’m not really feeling 100% better, but I would feel worse if I wasn’t here,” Seungmin says honestly and the worry doesn’t leave Felix’s eyes, but he knows that his best friend wouldn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to do. 

“Okay,” Felix says, the crease between his eyebrows not leaving, “but why do you even want to stay here?” 

Seungmin sighs. He really doesn’t want to admit it. He’s not really ready to, but he doesn’t know if he ever will be ready to admit it, so again, he focuses on the truth. 

“Minho,” Seungmin mumbles, avoiding Felix’s gaze. Felix makes a confused noise and sounds like he’s about to ask questions, but Seungmin turns and starts walking towards the cluster of student council members in one of the corners of the gymnasium. Seungmin can hear Felix mumbling under his breath and shuffling behind him, just a step behind. 

Seungmin takes small steps towards the huddled council members. It’s not all of them, just a few. Chaeryeong, Soobin, Seonghwa, Renjun, Jiwoo, and… Minho. They were talking, Renjun and Chaeryeong laughing at something, Soobin looking down at Seonghwa in awe, and Jiwoo and Minho just standing there paying attention to what the others were saying. As he gets closer, it's Soobin who notices him first. 

“Seungmin!” Soobin breaks off from Seonghwa, not bothering to apologize or bow profusely like he usually does, and rushes over to him. Seungmin feels a little special at the fact that Soobin had completely forgotten to be his usually overpolite self to go and check on him. 

“Dahyun said you weren’t feeling good and that you might not show,” Soobin says rushedly, his eyebrows furrowed like Felix’s, and lifts a hand, pressing the back of it to Seungmin's forehead

Seungmin laughs, his chest feeling lighter at the kind gesture, “I’m fine now, I just needed some time.” 

“Are you sure? Should you go home? You can't get sick! Midterm exams are coming up and if you're sick you will miss them and you can't study properly-” Soobin rambles, and Seungmin interrupts him before he could strain his voice from how fast he was talking.

“Soobin! I’m okay, I promise.” Laughter bubbles out of Seungmin's chest at Soobin's funny concerns, and he was secretly glad he looked just a little sick rather than like he had just been crying his eyes out. 

“Okay,” Soobin nods his head fast like an overexcited bunny, and Seungmin’s laughing again. 

“Seungmin!” Seonghwa calls out from where he’s standing with the other council members, “you made it just in time for the end of the assembly.” 

Seungmin sends Seonghwa a smile, trying not to pay too much attention to Minho who is just beside him, but of course, he fails. 

Minho was looking down at his phone, his soft auburn hair just falling in front of his eyes from looking down. He was completely ignoring Seungmin, and it made him want to start crying all over again. 

“Uh, so what’s next?” Seungmin nervously asks, bringing his bottom lip in between his teeth to try and distract himself from the tears that wanted to grace his waterline, and glancing to the center of the gym where the principal was walking out. 

Nobody answers him. If it wasn't for the crowded bustling bleachers, Seungmin could have sworn he could hear a pen drop. Confused, Seungmin looks back to the group of council members around him and sees them all giving him an awkward look. Soobin keeps cutting glances from Minho, who was still on his phone, to Seungmin.

“My friends are about to perform, or well, the stupid idiots as you call them,” Minho is the one who speaks up, looking up from his phone to give Seungmin a look that causes tears to prick in his eyes. Seungmin stands frozen, pinned under Minho's glare. If Minho sees the tears welling in Seungmins eyes, he doesn't acknowledge them. Instead, he just tucks his phone into his back pocket and walks off. 

Again, nobody says anything, shocked at what Minho said but Seungmin can't help but think that he deserved it. Seungmin can't even bring himself to be embarrassed from the attention he's getting from the council members at what Minho said, instead he's just ashamed, sad, and he really wants to cry again.

Felix, who had still stuck to Seungmin’s side, grabs one of his hands and squeezes, sensing that he would need comfort. Seungmin squeezes back, focusing on his teeth digging into his bottom lip and Felix’s hand instead of his steadily blurring vision. 

“That's it for the assembly everyone, we have one last performance from some of our students!” Seungmin then finally filters in what their principle is saying into the mic, dimly aware of the looks he's getting from the council members. 

“Come on, let's find a place to watch,” Felix says, loud enough for everyone around to hear, and pulls Seungmin away from the council members all still watching him awkwardly. Felix provides him with an escape and he can't be more grateful. 

“Now it's time for what you all have been waiting for!” Minho's voice echoes from the speakers around the gym and Seungmin's head whips around trying to find the president. As they walk away, Seungmin doesn't take his eyes off Minho. 

“It is my pleasure to introduce, drum roll please!” Minho yells into the mic, a broad smile on his face. “3RACHA!”

“3RACHA?” Felix stops dragging him along and Seungmin runs face-first into his friends back. 

“Ow,” Seungmin whines, rubbing his nose, but Felix is too busy freaking out to care. 

“Seungmin, Seungmin, Seungmin, Seungmin,” Felix starts violently shaking Seungmin’s shoulder, his eyes wide and locked on something just behind Minho. 

“Lix! What!” Seungmin grumbles out as he pries Felix’s small fingers off his shoulder. 

“Why didn’t you tell me it was fucking 3RACHA performing!” Felix whispers shrieks, ripping his gaze away from whatever was behind Minho and to Seungmin.

“I didn't realize I needed to?” Seungmin looks at Felix confused. He doesn't remember the last time he's seen his friend _this_ freaked out. He couldn’t tell if Felix was nervous, scared, excited or all three.

“This is the group I’ve been talking about!” Felix bursts out, “the one I’ve been begging you to listen to!” 

“Wait? It is?” Seungmin asks, suddenly remembering he forgot to listen to the songs Felix had asked him to listen to a while back. Seungmin averts his gaze out to the gym floor, looking past Minho and to three boys. 

It's Seungmin’s turn for his eyes to bug out. Chan, and two other students he doesn't recognize, all run out to the middle of the gym floor, mics in their hands, and in street clothes. 

“Hey everyone!” Chan yells into the mic, and the entire bleachers _scream_. Seungmin had never seen Chan in street clothes, and seeing the baseball captain in a pair of black baggy pants and white shirt with a jean jacket overtop was incredibly surprising. Not in a bad way of course. Seugmin knew how to appreciate art when he saw it. 

“We are 3RACHA!” One of the boys with pitch-black hair that laid flat against his forehead screams into the mic. He was short, though not much shorter than the other two boys. He had this presence that was intimidating, but when he smiled his entire face lit up and he wasn't so intimidating anymore. 

“And today we're going to perform our song We Go for you!” Chan circles around, yelling to everyone. 

“Now make some noise!” The third boy screams into his own mic. 

“Oh my fucking god, that's Jisung!” Felix shrieks and points to the boy who was just talking, “I knew his voice was so familiar holy shit.” 

_Jisung_. Minho’s words from Monday ring through his head, and the lump returns in his stomach.

“Oh my fucking god,” Felix continues to freak out, “he’s the one whos always doing stupid shit in our class, oh my fucking god.” 

Seungmin follows Felix’s eyes and out to Jisung. Like the other two, he was wearing baggy black pants, a white shirt, and a jean jacket, but his jacket was wrapped around his hips exposing his defined arms. Seungmin could see Felix practically drooling at the boy’s arms and put that thought in the back of his head to bring up to his friend later. Jisung also had on a pair of doc martens with platform soles making him the tallest of the bunch which was kinda funny to Seungmin. 

Music begins pounding through the speaker in the gym, the bass deep and vibrating right into Seungmin’s core. It's a backtrack and he recognizes Chan's voice starting to sing backing vocals on the track. Seungmin can't deny that the feeling and sound is addicting. 

Then what happens next makes Seungmin feel faint. 

Minho walks out, joining the three in the middle of the gym along with a tall boy he recognizes on the dance team with long ink-like black hair. Minho has shed his blazer and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt and rolled up his sleeves. 

Then Jisung brings the mic to his lips. 

And if Seungmin wasn’t blown away by Minho before, he was certainly blown away now. 

Minho and the ravenette fall into step beside Jisung and begin to dance, Jisung rapping into his mic beautifully. 

And holy shit, Jisung sounds amazing, and Minho and the ravenette look amazing dancing with Jisung center. Seungmin didn’t even know Minho fucking danced. 

Watching Minho dance was like an otherworldly experience. Just the way he swayed his hips to the music, hit each beat with precision and looked so amazing while doing it. Minho is fucking great and they’re all fucking great, and Seungmin now understands how they have enamored their entire student body and Felix. 

The beat slows and Chan begins to sing into his mic, dancing in step with the others. The third boy walks up and everyone parts for him. The way he walks and the aura he gives off commands everyone's attention and begins to rap into his mic. 

If it's even possible, Seungmin is blown away again. 

The third boy spits fucking fire, everyone responding to his every move. They have an eye-catching choreography, following the rap and they look just amazing. It's clear they're having fun and Seungmin can't help but be completely bewildered by their performance. 

Then, his gaze finds Minho again.

If Seungmin thought he was blown away before, what he feels watching Minho is nothing compared to it. 

Minho is smiling so wide, his body moving like with the grace of water along to the music like he was made to dance. He looks breathtaking and Seungmin wants to watch him forever. 

Their performance ends too soon, and everyone _explodes_. Seungmin looks out to the five on the gym floor, his eyes on Minho, and just stares in complete shock. He then looks over to Felix, who had become unusually silent, and his best friend looks like he's ascended, his gaze locked on the brilliantly smiling rapper Jisung. 

They were _amazing_. 3RACHA. Minho and the ink-black haired dancer. The guilt Seungmin feels for calling them stupid idiots builds up stronger than before. Seungmin really hopes Chenle will tell his dad about them.

“Thank you so much for performing!” Seonghwa strolls out on the stage, mic clasped between his fingers. “Don't forget, everyone! 3RACHA will be performing again at the bake sale next weekend! Look out for more announcements concerning the bake sale during school next week! We hope to see you there!”

“What?” Seungmin gasps out. He never knew that. Nobody told him they would perform at the bake sale. Suddenly he realizes, after watching this performance and knowing 3RACHA would perform again at the bake sale, was a clear way to get more attendance at the bake sale. Was this Minho’s plan all along? Seungmin’s stomach drops.

Then, like after every assembly, everyone starts leaving the bleachers at once. Teachers start screaming, trying to speak over the joined talking of all the students. 

“Let's go before we get trampled,” Felix leans over and whispers to Seungmin, finally out of the stupor 3RACHA had left him in. Before Felix was to drag them out of the assembly, a hand caught him on the shoulder.

“Seungmin,” Seungmin turns to see Seonghwa, a small smile gracing his features, “could I borrow him?” Seonghwa asks Felix. 

“Yeah, sure, uh, see you later Seung,” Felix drops Seungmin's hand and looks a little sad. 

“I’ll catch up with you later,” Seungmin quickly assures his friend, and Felix smiles. 

Felix dives forward and hugs Seungmin, saying one last goodbye before running off to beat the crowd of students. 

“We should follow his lead and get out of here before we become one with the gym floor,” Seonghwa grabs Seungmin's upper arm and drags him out of the gym and then to an empty hallway. Seungmin is very confused. 

“Uh, so what did you need, Seonghwa?” Seungmin asks when Seonghwa stops dragging him. 

Seonghwa looks at him, stares at him for a couple of moments, and then speaks, “I’m not really sure what went down between you and Minho, but I think you should really talk to him,” Seonghwa says without a hint of hesitation. 

Seungmin stands frozen. Seonghwa just quirks an eyebrow at him.

“We just fought,” Seungmin blurts, talking too fast.

“You both aren't acting like it was just a fight,” Seonghwa says, unconvinced. 

“What do you mean?” Seungmin says, feeling small. 

“I’ve known Minho since we were freshmen,” Seonghwa starts, “he’s acting all tough and mad, but I know him, and he's only acting that way because he's hurt, and everyone can see that you’re hurt too.” 

“I, I, uh,” Seungmin stutters, not knowing what to say. Minho was hurt, he hurt Minho. Seungmin wanted to cry.

“You two need to talk,” Seonghwa’s face softens when he sees the look on Seungmin's face. “I know you both regret it.” 

Talk to Minho. Seungmin didn't even know how to start with that. 

“So, I did a little meddling,” Seonghwa smirks, and Seungmin is almost scared for what the vice president is going to say next. “I asked Minho to meet me in the auxiliary gym after the assembly, go meet him there, and talk out whatever happened between the two of you.” 

“But,” Seungmin blurts out, panic rising in his throat. Seungmin did want to talk to Minho and was desperate for the chance, and Seonghwa was giving him that opportunity, but he was _scared_. 

“I didn't want to have to pull this card, but,” Seonghwa shrugs not looking guilty at all, “Seungmin, as your vice president, I’m telling you that you need to go to the auxiliary gym and talk to Minho.” 

Seungmin blanches. Seonghwa just laughs. 

“You two better have made up by the next meeting or I’ll put Mr. Song on your asses,” Seonghwa says, slapping his hands on Seungmin's shoulder and pushing him in the direction of the aux gym. 

“Wait! I don't know, I’m not, I can't, I, I,” Seungmin scrambles, unable to complete a sentence, his mind whirling. 

“See you later, Seungmin!’ Seonghwa says lastly, giving Seungmin a little push and leaving him standing in the middle of the hallway alone and panicking. Seungmin turns to chase after Seonghwa, but the vice president gives him a look that makes him freeze on the spot.

“Okay,” Seungmin says in a higher pitch than his normal voice and nods. “I can do this,” he repeats to himself, trying to convince himself. Seungmin gulps and turns away from the gymnasium. 

Seungmin walks as slowly as he can to the aux gym. The pads of his sneakers make soft echoing sounds against the floor as he drags them ever so slowly. His mind runs with thousands of scenarios of what could happen. Maybe Minho won't forgive him, and their relationship is forever ruined. Maybe Minho will forgive him and they’ll make up and-

Seungmin squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head aggressively. His thoughts were betraying him.

Before he knows it, he's standing outside the aux gym. 

Seungmin sighs and pushes open one of the auxiliary gym doors, the doors creak as they slide against the floor. It was completely empty, as were the hallways leading up to the aux gym. So yeah, maybe Seonghwa had been smart to choose this spot for Seungmin and Minho to talk. It was eerily quiet in the aux gym. The only sound was the soles of Seungmin's shoes padding against the shining aux gym floor, the sound echoing against the empty walls. Seungmin remembers coming here every now and then to watch Felix and his volleyball practices. One time, Felix even made him set tosses for him to spike. Felix even had him try to spike himself, Seungmin shudders at the memory. 

Seungmin breathes out a shaky breath, wringing his hands together as the reality of his situation becomes even more apparent to him. Seungmin turns to look at the doors to the aux gym. Minho was supposed to walk through those doors any moment, and Seungmin would have to talk to him. 

Seungmin _did_ want to talk to Minho despite the way his body and thoughts were reacting to the thought of talking to the president. He was just really fucking _scared_. He wasn't even sure what exactly he was afraid of, but the knot in his stomach and the tension in his limbs thoroughly showed his fear. 

Then Seungmin jumps out of his skin. 

“I swear to god Seonghwa,” Minho strolls through the open doors to the aux gym. The sound of the doors banging against the wall from the force of Minho opening them making Seungmin startle. Seungmin’s head whips around, his heart beginning to pound harder in his chest. 

Minho looks the same as he had when he was dancing, blazer nowhere to be seen, button-up that has the first couple buttons unbuttoned over his chest, but oh he was so much more breathtaking up close. His hair is more tousled than the last time Seungmin saw him, which was just less than thirty minutes ago, the auburn strands messily parted down the middle exposing his pretty forehead. Who knew someone could have a pretty forehead? He was looking down, his nose buried in his phone, which is why he hadn't seen Seungmin yet. “If you're going to ask me to introduce you to that short dude again, you know I don't even know him that well, he's just one of Chan’s friends, you should really be asking Chan not me, also Seonghwa you know I never would have-” 

Then Minho looks up, and his sentence immediately dies on his lips when he sees it's Seungmin standing in the aux gym ahead of him and not Seonghwa who he was supposed to meet. The arm he was holding his phone in falls to his side, his eyes narrowing at Seungmin. Before Seungmin can even say something, Minho is turning around and walking briskly out of the gym. The banging of Minho throwing open the aux gym doors to leave rattles around in Seungmin’s head, louder than when he had entered, and he takes another shaky breath. 

“Wait!” Seungmin calls out, and he feels like it's Monday all over again. “Minho wait!”

Seungmin follows behind Minho, jogging forward to catch up to him. Seungmin catches up with him in the hallways, he panics and reaches out and grabs the back of Minho’s shirt and pulls him backward. Seungmin pulls too hard and Minho barrels backward into Seungmin. 

“Seungmin, what the hell!” Minho barks out as he collides with Seungmin, the junior representative letting out a yelp at the collision. Seungmin lets out a groan as he stumbles backward, holding his head where it had hit Minho surprisingly hard back. Seungmin then remembers that day at the baseball game and shakes his head at the intrusive thoughts. 

“I’m sorry!” Seungmin hurriedly breathes out an apology, reaching out once again, but this time not as rushed. “I just didn't want you to run away again!” 

“Just go away, Seungmin,” Minho growls and shakes Seungmin off, starting to walk away again. 

“No! Wait!” Seungmin practically shrieks. Panicking, Seungmin runs forward until he's in front of Minho and stops in front of him. His body moves before he can think and Seungmin grabs Minho’s shoulder stopping him. 

Minho has to look up to meet Seungmin’s eyes at how close they are, their faces just centimeters away from each other. Seungmin never realized how much taller he was than Minho. Their now apparent high difference sends butterflies prancing in Seungmin's tummy.

Minho’s eyes widen when he realizes just how close he is to Seungmin, and he takes a hasty step backward, his cheeks reddening. Seungmin watches what happens somehow breathlessly, feeling overwhelmed himself. 

“Just, just fuck off,” Minho huffs, pushing past Seungmin.

Seungmin’s mind races, he finally has Minho to himself, he can't waste the opportunity Seonghwa gave him. Seungmin spins around, watching Minho’s back as he walks away. Seungmin takes a deep breath steeling himself and squeezes his eyes shut. 

“I’m sorry!” Seungmin blurts, his stomach rolling in spirals. If Seungmin hadn’t been able to feel the ground on his feet, he would have thought he was free falling. Minho just keeps walking, ignoring the junior representative. 

“I was wrong!” Seungmin calls out, his voice steady. Minho freezes. Seungmin continues, “I was wrong about everything.” Seungmin takes a breath, “I was wrong about you.” 

“What?” Minho turns halfway to look back at Seungmin, his eyebrows furrowing together, a deep crease forming between them. 

“I, I was wrong,” Seungmin repeats, though not as strong as before. 

Minho narrows his eyes, “you already said that.”

Seungmin inhales steadily, meeting Minho's glare head-on. “You were right, about everything, I was stupid, and I was stubborn, and you were right.” 

Minho stands there, a glare still fixated on Seungmin. His jaw was clenched, his lips in a thin line, like he was holding something in. Seungmin could see Minho’s hands clenching at his side, his knuckles almost white. 

“Minho,” Seungmin starts, talking a step forward, his heart clenching at the sight of the student body president. 

Then a sob rips out of Minho's throat, past his lips, and echoing into the otherwise quiet hallway. Minho quickly slams his hand across his mouth, stopping the next sob that threatens to break free from its confines. 

Seungmin stands frozen in shock, staring at Minho as he wobbles over and hastily places his free hand that wasn't pressed against his mouth on the wall, slumping forward. Minho puts all his weight onto his palm, falling against the wall and harshly banging his forehead forward onto the hard wall. That's when Seungmin gets into action. 

“Minho!” Seungmin rushes forward, just in time to catch Minho as his arm holding himself up gives out. Minho lands in Seungmin’s arms and the junior representative gently helps the boy in his arms down until they are both sitting down beside each other. 

“I should be the one apologizing,” Minho breaks through his sobs, his hand still clamped on his mouth making his words hard to understand. 

“What?” Seungmin questions, bewildered. “Why would you apologize?” 

Minho hiccups as sobs continue to rack through his body and tears cascade down his cheeks. “I always targeted you during meetings, it was only obvious you would have such a reaction,” Minho brought both of his hands up and covered his face, his shoulder shaking. 

Seungmin wasn't really sure what was going on. Seungmin had never seen such emotions on Minho, let alone being with him when he was in such a vulnerable state. Seungmin was filled with the sense to protect him. So Seungmin does what he knows. 

Slowly as to not spook the crying boy, Seungmin wraps an arm around his shoulder, pulling Minho into his chest. Minho falls into Seungmins arms almost obediently, fisting Seungmin's blazer into his clenched hands. Seungmin hugs Minho into his embrace, rocking ever so slightly. 

“There is nothing for you to apologize for, Minho,” Seungmin says softly, Minho's hair tickling his chin. “I should be apologizing,” Seungmin gulps down the lump in his throat. “I should never have called your friends stupid idiots, and today just proved how wrong I was, 3RACHA was amazing.”

“Yeah that was kind of insensitive of you,” Minho laughs into Seungmin’s chest, his sobs still shaking through his body.

“And I'm really sorry about that,” Seungmin whines, and ducks his head so that his nose is pressed against the top of Minho's head. Seungmin doesn't even know why he does it, it feels almost too intimate for the two of them, but he _loves_ it. 

“And I’m really sorry for calling you dumb, I don’t think you’re dumb, I actually think you’re really smart,” Minho chuckles a little, shifting a little to get more comfortable in Seungmin’s arms. 

“But I was dumb,” Seungmin counters, frowning down into Minho’s hair. His hair smelled like strawberries, and Seungmin couldn't stop taking small soft sniffs, letting the scent wrap around him like a soft blanket.

“You weren’t though,” Minho says, and lifts himself up to look in Seungmin’s eyes. His eyes were full of sincerity albeit how puffy and glassy they were. “If anything, I was, I should have told you why I wanted 3RACHA to perform.”

“Why didn’t you?” Seungmin asks. 

“I was scared,” Minho sighs. “I didn’t know how everyone would react, I didn’t know if they would think I was being too personal and not taking the job seriously, and plus I didn’t really want to tell everyone about Jisung’s situation.” 

“I get that,” Seungmin smiles softly, reaching out to wipe at the tear tracks on Minho’s cheeks. At the gesture, Minho looks up shocked, and Seungmin quickly retreats his hand, his ears pink. Thankfully, Minho doesn't comment on the odd gesture, saving Seungmin the extra embarrassment. 

“About 3RACHA performing for the bake sale,” Seungmin starts hesitantly. “Thank you for doing that.” 

“I thought about what you said,” Minho sniffles. “Maybe if the dean had more money to use, she could actually start putting some of it into the student body.” 

“Well, it was really smart what you did having them perform now, the students will all now want to go to the bake sale,” Seungmin praises the president. 

“I wouldn't have thought about it if it wasn't for you,” Minho shrugs, looking into Seungmin’s eyes. They both stare at each other for a moment, and Seungmin’s heart beats so loud in his chest he's afraid Minho will hear it.

“Uh,” Seungmin thinks on his next words. “3RACHA weren't the only ones who were amazing, by the way, you were too, I never even knew you danced.” 

“I've been dancing ever since I was a kid,” Minho says almost bashfully. 

“How come you're not in the dance club?” Seungmin asks, tilting his head to the side in question. 

“I was in the dance club in freshman year, but I quit sophomore year to focus on student council,” Minho says, playing with his fingers. “It’s actually where I met Jeongguk.” 

“Jeongguk?” Seungmin is taken back a bit, “like, former president Jeongguk?” 

“Yeah,” Minho laughs a bit under his breath. “If it wasn't for him I never would have even thought to join the student council,” Minho admits. 

“What? Really?” 

Minho bites his lip, looking up at Seungmin from behind his watery lashes. “Can I tell you something?” 

“Yes, anything.” The words tumble out of Seungmin’s lips before he can even think. They were true, he isn't sure exactly why, but we would do anything for Minho. 

“I’m a scholarship kid,” Minho says bluntly, now looking Seungmin in the eye. 

“Huh?” Seungmin blanches. 

“I’m not ashamed of being a scholarship kid,” Minho shakes his head softly, breaking eye contact with Seungmin. “I just don't want people to treat me differently because of it, or to not think I deserve my position on the student council."

“The only reason I was even able to go here was because of Jeongguk, he practically took me under his wing, gave me all of his books, helped me buy my uniforms, would even share his lunch with me, and when it came to student council, taught me everything I knew and helped me get my position now,” Minho licks his lips, now avoiding Seungmin’s eyes. 

“And,” Minho sniffles. “That's why I try so hard to be the perfect president, I just want to do something good with what I was grateful to be given, so I have been having extra meetings with the dean. I don't want to have this position in vain, I don't want it just because Jeongguk was able to help me, but because I myself deserved it.” The student body president rambles, his voice sometimes getting caught on his soft sobs. 

“Minho,” Seungmin says, talking over the lump in his throat. “You _do_ deserve it.” 

At the candor in Seungmin's tone, Minho looks up at him with wide, watery eyes. His heart hurts at the sight. Seungmin never realized that Minho felt that way. He always thought that Minho was the epitome of confidence. Never once would he have thought that Minho was holding all of this on his shoulders. Seungmin had been so blind, so focused on the image of the arrogant and perfect president Minho in his head, that he never thought that Minho could actually be doubting himself and be insecure. The practiced smile Minho always wore starts to make sense in Seungmin's head. 

“Do you know why I’m always so annoyed with you?” Seungmin asks softly, giving Minho a kind smile. The student president shakes his head, a little crease of confusion between his eyebrows. 

“Because I can't think of anyone else more perfect for the position as president than you,” Seungmin says, talking as clearly and steady as he could, hoping that with the sincerity in his tone Minho would believe him. 

“What?” Minho asks in a small voice.

“Everything that you are is absolutely amazing, Minho,” Seungmin says, looking Minho dead in the eyes. “You are the perfect president, from the way you are always caring for the other student council members to always being the kindest to the students and befriending them, always making the best decisions to not only benefit the school but the students, you are amazing.” 

Minho stares at him, his mouth opening and closing, looking like a fish out of water. Seungmin couldn't lie that it was a little adorable. “Thank you,” Minho chokes out, his voice just as small as before. 

“Wait,” Seungmin suddenly says, remembering his words from today, and Minho’s words from their fight, “you said you've been having meetings with the dean? 

Minho gulps audibly. “I have been having extra meetings with her trying to convince her to move more funding into the student body, especially the scholarship kids,” Minho ducks his head. “So far I’ve been meeting with her after school every Wednesday for however much time she has and we go over budgeting and ways we could transfer fundings but nothing has happened, the sports teams still get all the money and I feel like the students are suffering for that."

Seungmin blinks, staring at Minho’s side profile, the student body president still ducking his head away from him. Seungmin almost didn't know what to say. Minho was so _good_. Such a genuine and amazing person that Seungmin was almost breathless at the realizations.

“You know you don't have to do this alone,” Seungmin says softly, and Minho looks over to him in shock at the tenderness in his voice. It shocked Seungmin too, he never realized just how much he cared for Minho until their fight. He didn't want Minho to do this alone. He wanted to help Minho as much as he could. Seungmin was still trying to get used to these thoughts, not used to caring so much for Minho, but he didn't mind it at all.

“I know,” Minho sighs, ducking his chin to rest on his knees that were pulled up to his chest, “I just, I thought it would be so cool if I could do it myself, do it all by myself, be able to accomplish something like that. That if I could do it, I could prove that Jeongukk helping me wasn't wasted.” 

“Minho, you’re already doing so great though, you don't need to do something like that to prove yourself,” Seungmin is quick to assure Minho, bring a hand up to rest on his shoulder. Minho leans into the touch.

Minho looks over at Seungmin again, blinking slowly at him. Seungmin feels a little anxious with Minho's attention on him like that, but he didn't mind it all that much. 

“Thank you,” Minho breathes out, sounding vulnerable. 

It was weird, being with Minho when he was in such a state, looking so small and vulnerable, but the fact that Minho was letting him be with him while he was like that made Seungmin's heart swell. It made him think that maybe they were actually getting somewhere. Maybe they could be friends. In the back of his mind, he whispers _more_ , but he pushes that thought away quickly. 

“I’m going to help you,” Seungmin decides. 

“What? Why?” Minho squeaks, looking at Seungmin unbelievably. 

“Because I want to,” Seungmin declares. “And plus, I want to be president next year so it would be good to start working on things like this.”

“But I thought you hated me?” Minho whispers, his eyes starting to get watery again.

“What, no, no,” Seungmin's eyes go wide and he quickly reaches out to catch a tear that broke free from Minho’s waterline. Minho’s cheeks flare up from his crying. At least that's what Seungmin assumes. “Please don't cry,” Seungmin says softly, running his thumb under his eye softly to catch any other tears. 

“I never hated you,” Seungmin frowns, a sigh slipping past his lips, his palm still cupping Minho’s cheek. “I just judged you without getting to know who you really were,” Seungmin admits. “I’m sorry I’ve made you feel that way, I have never hated you, sure you incredibly pissed me off sometimes, but I have never ever hated you.” 

Minho stares at him with wide eyes, tears still catching at his waterline. Minho's cheek burns under Seungmin’s palm, and he can't bring himself to pull away. It felt so… intimate. Like they were in their own little bubble, and Seungmin didn't want to back out of that. He was scared, but he was willing to dive into that fear and claim it for his own. He knew what this fear meant, even though deep down he knew, he wasn't exactly ready to put a name to it.

“Actually, I really look up to you, you're the student council president for fuck's sake,” Seungmin laughs, bringing his bottom lip between his teeth to play with it. 

Minho doesn't say anything, just stares at Seungmin. With where they were sitting, so close their bodies almost touching, and Seungmin’s hand still on Minho's cheek, if he wanted he could really just-

“Can you believe that!” A shrill voice breaks through their little bubble, and Seungmin is painfully aware of just how close he had leaned towards Minho. He quickly retreats, having to drag his hand back from Minho's cheek, even though he didn't really want to. Panicking, Seungmin looks towards the end of the hallway, to see a group of girls walking past the hallway, too deep in their conversation to notice them. 

Seungmin then looks back at Minho, who had also jumped away when he heard the girls, his eyes on the end of the hallway and fingers lightly touching his cheek. The voices fade out as the group of girls pass the hallway, and Seungmin watches Minho. Minho licks his lips, the tears that had traced his waterline now gone. His fingers are still lightly touching the cheek that Seungmins palm had been on, his cheeks burning a bright red. He looked stupidly endearing, eyes wide and shining, his pretty lips parted, and fluffy auburn hair lightly touching his eyebrows. Seungmin faintly thinks, _he looks like a kitten_. 

Then, Minho looks over at him, lightly taken back at finding Seungmin staring at him and says, “did you mean it when you said you would help me?” 

“Of course, I’ll do anything,” Seungmin doesn't even think before he responds. He doesn't have to. It’s like a switch had been switched in his head, everything he formerly felt for Minho was gone, replaced with this warm feeling in his chest.

“Alright,” Minho smiles, and Seungmin's breath is taken away. It's unlike any smile he has ever seen on Minho. It overtakes his whole face, so big it reveals a little dimple on the corner of his mouth. It makes his cheeks squish up, sending his eyes to crinkle up at the corners and into little crescents. It's absolutely breathtaking, and Seungmin will do anything to be the cause of that smile again. 

“We have a lot of work to do,” Minho says, still smiling that breathtaking smile and Seungmin is absolutely breathless.

“Then let's start right away,” Seungmin smiles back, way too excited to start working with Minho. Seungmin was completely overjoyed to be on good terms with Minho again. It was almost like a puzzle piece he had been missing finally put itself back together in his heart. 

Oh yeah, Seungmin was _really_ happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that was A CHAPTER wasn't it (also the longest chapter in the fic its a monster)? we go is one of my favorite songs, and my friend maja helped give me the idea to include it! plus it gave me the excuse to have minho dance! so we're finallllyyyy getting to the good stuff hehe! hope you enjoyed chapter five! attention pls.
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)


	6. chapter six

Just like Seungmin had said before, they started right away. After Seungmin and Minho had talked, they both agreed to start meeting each other every day at lunch to go over plans for the next meeting with the dean, except for Monday because they had a student council meeting during lunch so they were going to meet after school. They had only three meetings to discuss their plans so Seungmin was a little nervous. Minho had reassured him that he had many notes and that the junior representative could borrow his notebook to look over them before they first meet. So Seungmin did just that. He studied the notes, made annotations, and even copied some into his own notebook. He took his time too, going through them thoroughly and coming up with ideas to go over with Minho. 

Seungmin was also a little scared. Scared that they would just fall back to their previous behaviors and never agree on things again. Seungmin could admit that most of the time, it was his jealousy and stubbornness that clashed with Minho so much. This time, he was going to push that aside and actually listen to Minho. He had meant what he said to Minho, there was nobody else more perfect for the job than Lee Minho. Seungmin trusts Minho, and he was going to prove it. 

“So I’m guessing you're not going to tell me what happened between you and Minho yet,” Felix says, his best friend sneaking up behind him and scaring Seungmin shitless with his deep ass voice. Seungmin was on his way to the student council lunch meeting, scared out of his mind about what could possibly happen, and had never noticed his best friend walk up to him.

“Huh?” Seungmin sputters, tripping over himself as he looks over at his best friend. “I, I don't know what you mean?” Seungmin ends up saying the last bit like a question. Very convincing. 

Felix rolls his eyes, adjusting his book bag on his shoulders. “It’s so obvious, you aren't moping around anymore, so something must have happened with Minho.” 

Seungmin looks pointedly ahead of him, feeling shy. “We talked,” Seungmin mumbles under his breath. 

“Obviously!” Felix whines. “Tell me something I don't know!”

Seungmin rolls his eyes at his best friend, the anxiousness that had previously resided in his chest easing away slowly at Felix’s presence. “We talked  _ a lot _ ,” Seungmin looks at Felix, exaggerating some of his words to get the point across to his lavender haired friend. Seungmin notes that it was starting to look much lighter and closer to his formerly silver blond hair. 

“Alright so,” Felix smirks. “That means I pick you up tonight and we talk it over some barbeque from Byeol?” 

Seungmin laughs fondly at his friend. “Okay, I’ll make an exception tonight, I don't have much to study anyways.”

“Deal!” Felix does a little bounce and sticks his pinky out for Seungmin. With a grin, Seungmin reaches out and clasps pinkies with his best friend, promising. By the time they let go of each other, they're standing outside Mr. Song's room and Seungmin’s anxiety from earlier returns. Felix notices immediately. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Felix asks under his breath, taking a step closer to Seungmin in case anyone walking around them could overhear. The hallway was surprisingly busy at the moment. 

“Yeah,” Seungmin breathes out, the knot in his chest making it come out shaky. “Just the last time I was here, we fought,” Seungmin says with a frown, looking around the hallway. 

“Hey Seung, it's okay, that's in the past,” Felix whispers and takes Seungmin's hand reassuringly. Seungmin smiles and squeezes his friend's hand.

“You’re right,” Seungmin shakes his head, trying to shake the memories away. “We talked, and we are friends now.” 

“Friends?” Felix cocks an eyebrow and steps back when he knows Seungmin has calmed down. “You sure about that?” Felix snickers and ruffles Seungmin's hair. 

“Stop that, you fiend!” Seungmin tries to duck away, but Felix is persistent and completely messes up his previously neatly styled hair. Seungmin may have spent extra time on his hair that morning knowing he was going to see Minho, but nobody needs to know that. 

“Hey.” A soft voice interrupts Felix’s giggles and Seungmin’s whines, and the two friends look over to spot Minho standing a little away, a shy smile on his face. Seungmin’s eyes go wide and he quickly straightens himself, trying desperately to flatten his bangs that Felix so carelessly tousled. 

“Hi Minho,” Seungmin blinks a couple of times, hands still trying to fix his hair. Felix snickers under his breath. 

“Hi Seungmin,” Minho responds, his shy smile morphing into a bright smile that shows his slightly crooked front teeth. That little dimple is back at the corner of his mouth and Seungmin just  _ stares _ , completely forgetting about his messy hair, too busy staring at the beautiful boy in front of him. 

Suddenly, Felix clears his throat, and Seungmin is broken out of his daze. That's when he realizes that Minho had also been staring at him too. 

“Well, hope your meeting goes well,” Felix smiles at Minho and Seungmin, then turns to his best friend with a grin that looks more like a smirk, “and I’ll see you at Byeol tonight, make sure to tell me everything, don't leave a single detail out.” 

“Ahaha, okay!” Seungmin laughs nervously, his eyes darting from Minho and back to Felix. His best friend just grins evilly. 

“Bye! See you later,” Felix waves to the both of them before turning around and walking off. As Felix walks away, Seungmin hears a faint “I’m going to be a third wheel now, aren't I?” from his best friend, only able to catch it from his deep register. Seungmin blushes at the implication.

Seungmin then looks back at Minho, his gaze locking onto the student body president like a magnet. Minho’s cheeks are dusted in pink and his ears are flaring red, his eyes following Felix. Seungmin’s heart starts beating ten times harder in his chest. 

“Yo, the meeting's going to start soon,” A voice interrupts and Seungmin turns to see Seonghwa hanging out of the door, a smug smile highlighting his striking features. 

“Planning to start before me?” Minho turns away from Seungmin to cock an eyebrow at Seonghwa. Seungmin just ends up staring at Minho, not able to understand how someone so beautiful could be so real. Seungmin then blinks, shocked at his own thoughts. 

“Oh, I could never even dream of it,” Seonghwa places a hand on his heart in faux offense. 

Minho laughs in response, and something blooms in Seungmin's chest. Seungmin had never heard him laugh like that, it sounded carefree and light, almost like there had been a block before that was gone now. It was music to Seungmin's ears. 

“Seriously though,” Seonghwa looks between the two of them. “Song doesn't seem in a good mood today, he might just start without you.” 

“We’ll come in a couple of seconds, maybe stall him for us?” Minho shifts a little, looking a little nervous to ask Seonghwa. The vice president grins knowingly at him.

“Oh, of course, anything for you two,” Seonghwa winks at Minho and gives Seungmin one last grin before he disappears back inside Mr. Song's room. They can faintly hear Seonghwa loudly calling for Mr. Song and what sounds like Soobin tripping over himself. With the amount Soobin trips over himself, Seungmin had the sound committed to heart. 

“So,” Minho then turns back to Seungmin, looking shy. “We’re still meeting in the library after classes are over, right?” 

Seungmin smiles reassuringly at Minho, hoping to get that shy look off of Minho's face even though it was absolutely adorable. “Yeah, I reviewed your notes and I really liked your plan on moving money from the sports team transportation fund to helping students afford their uniforms and extra books, and the idea of the sports teams having funding days where alumni can donate and-” Seungmin starts rambling and cuts off when he sees Minho staring at him with wide eyes. 

“Sorry, was I saying too much?” Seungmin panics a little, his heart thumping in his chest. 

“No, no, no,” Minho quickly says, himself panicking at Seungmin's panic. “I’m just really surprised, I think this is the first time you're agreeing with me.” A smile cracks across Minho's gorgeous face at his realization. 

“Well, actually,” Seungmin ducks his head guilty. “I agree with your ideas a lot, I was just too stubborn to admit it before.” 

“I think we were both a little too stubborn to admit that we agree on more things than one,” Minho laughs, and it eases the tightness in Seungmin's chest. 

Seungmin returns Minho's smile. “Maybe we should go in,” Seungmin nods his head to the door to Mr. Song's room, and Minho's eyes widened again. It was cute how it seemed to be a little habit of his. 

“Yeah, yeah, totally,” Minho nods but doesn't move, just stares at Seungmin, his eyes still wide. Seungmin’s heart  _ soars _ . Everything about Minho was breathtaking, and it was hard to believe that someone so gorgeous was even giving him the time of day. Seungmin had always known that Minho was handsome, but ever since the assembly, everything he felt for Minho had seemed to multiply. Now Minho's beauty for him was absolutely profound. Seungmin could not get enough of his beaming smile, and how his golden skin would glow against the softest rose blush that would dust along his cheeks. He felt like someday he would run out of adjectives to describe Minho. 

“Will you two stop staring at each other and get in here?” Dahyun suddenly appears at Mr. Song’s door, her hair now a soft purple compared to the last time he saw her. “I think Seonghwa is about to break out in song to try to keep distracting Mr. Song, he’s already taught him how to do the Renegade and I was able to convince him not to teach him the WAP, but I'm not sure how much longer I can keep them both at bay.” 

“Uh, yeah,” Minho gets out, finally breaking his gaze away from Seungmin. “We're coming right now.” 

Seungmin nods, only a little sad he didn't get to see Seonghwa teaching Mr. Song the Renegade. Then Seungmin realizes, had they really been out there that long? Before he could think more of it, Minho looks back at him, a soft, glittering smile on his face, and tugs at Seungmin’s wrist. Seungmin forgets everything and lets Minho pull him along. 

The rest of the day goes by fast. Maybe it was because Seungmin was so anxious about the meeting with Minho after school, but he wasn't going to dwell on that. 

The meeting during lunch had gone smoothly. It was just supposed to be a recount of the assembly, and they were going to have another meeting on Wednesday and Friday in preparation for the bake sale on Saturday, so there hadn't been much to talk about. 

During the meeting though, Seungmin had felt like he was going to drown. At first, Seungmin hadn't noticed right away, but once Mr. Song had begun talking and he had time to feel the atmosphere of the room, he did. The air in the room had been stiff like everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for something to happen. Then he noticed the looks. Soobin, usually cool and composed during meetings, had been glancing nervously between Minho and Seungmin quite obviously. Everyone else had been more subtle with their glances. 

Though what really had bothered Seungmin was how everyone reacted whenever Minho or Seungmin would talk after the other. He could feel the stares burning into him, it was like everyone was cautiously watching them like they were ticking time bombs frozen on zero just waiting to explode. He understood their concerns, especially after their fight during the last meeting, but it reminded him of all their fights and arguments and pushed the intense feelings of guilt back between his rib cage. 

Though, there had been two members during the meeting who hadn’t stared at him like he was a bomb about to explode. 

Seungmin on countless occasions had caught Dahyun grinning at him like a madwoman and Seonghwa giving him very pointed smug looks. Albeit annoying, they were much better than the careful stares he got from everyone else. 

When the meeting finally ended, it could not have been sooner. Minho and Seungmin hadn't fought the entire meeting, and the confused glances he had gotten from some of the members boiled under his skin.

After that, his classes all moved by in a blur, and he was finally standing outside of the library, wiping his sweaty palms on his thighs. 

Seungmin had practically sprinted to the library after his class. There was an anxiousness caught in his stomach that seemed to spur his movements. He was fidgeting like crazy, tapping his pencil against his thigh aggressively, and kept turning his head in every direction looking for Minho. 

The door to the library opens, and Seungmin jolts where he's standing, his breathing coming out sharp as a student walks out, looking at him weirdly. The door to the library closes with a thud as the student walks away and his heart thrums against his rib cage. Okay, maybe Seungmin was thinking too much. He didn't need to worry this much, not when there was nothing to be anxious over. It was just Minho. Just Minho… just Minho. Fuck.

Knowing that there was no delaying this, Seungmin steals himself and pulls open the library door, and walks in. The library was usually a little full after school, many students going there to finish work before going home. Many times Seungmin had gone to meet up with classmates for group work they had in their classes. Now, he was meeting with Minho here too.

“Good afternoon Seungmin,” Ms. Kang greets Seungmin from behind her desk, a book lying in front of her.

“Good afternoon Ms. Kang!” Seungmin smiles kindly at the librarian. Ms. Kang was an old woman with light grey hair and faint wrinkles outlining her face. They were more prominent around her mouth, showing how she had led a happy and cheerful life. She had been the librarian for their school for nearly 40 years if he remembered correctly. Everyone knew and loved her. “How is Taehyun?” Seungmin walks over to her desk, mentioning her grandson that he had talked to on a couple of occasions. He briefly remembers him being a friend of Soobins. 

“He’s doing great, studying his little heart out!” Ms. Kang smiles, her wrinkled cheeks squishing up. 

“Is he in any extracurriculars?” Seungmin asks the old librarian curiously, tilting his head slightly. He hadn't heard from Taehyun recently and wondered what the other boy had been up to so far that school year. 

“I did hear him mention student council, so you may have to look out before he steals your position!” Ms. Kang waggles a finger at Seungmin playfully and he giggles fondly at the action. 

“Oh? A rival for Seungmin?” Suddenly, a familiar voice speaks up from beside him, and Seungmin looks over startled. Minho was leaning against the counter, a warm smile on his face, directed at Seungmin. “Afraid to say Ms. Kang, but I’m the only rival for Seungmin,” Minho says to Ms. Kang, and Seungmin feels his heart miss a beat. A couple of weeks ago, Seungmin would have bristled at that statement, but something in the way Minho says it makes his heart skip a couple of beats in his chest. 

“Oh Minho, you rascal,” Ms. Kang shakes her head at Minho, a fond smile on her wrinkled cheeks. 

“Your favorite rascal,” Minho grins and it makes his eyes turn up into little crescents and Seungmin doesn't even try to pretend he's not staring at Minho.

“Oh, get out of here,” Ms. Kang says and pushes at Minho’s shoulder, but you could tell by the smile in her voice and the brightness in her eyes that she was enjoying Minho’s presence. Minho just had that effect on people, he was nice to be around, his joyous and playful nature always contagious. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll get out of your hair Ms. Kang, which looks great today, by the way,” Minho nods enthusiastically, and places a hand on his heart for good measure. 

“Oh, Minho! Stop giving me all of your attention and give it to this boy who certainly is waiting for it,” Ms. Kang shoos Minho away and points towards Seungmin, who was still unabashedly staring at Minho. As soon as the attention is on him, Seungmin laughs nervously, looking away from Minho’s gaze and scratching at his neck.

“Will do,” Minho says softly under his breath, barely audible. Seungmin hears and looks up to catch Minho's gaze. It’s electric, lighting his nerves on fire and making him have to let out a breath he didn't even realize he had been holding in. 

“Shoo shoo you two!” Ms. Kang waves her hands at them in a shooing motion, and Seungmin looks away from Minho long enough to notice. Minho smiles one last time at Mr. Kang before gesturing for Seungmin to follow him. Seungmin waves to Mr. Kang too before following Minho, promising her to say goodbye before he leaves. 

“I saved us a table near the back,” Minho looks over at Seungmin, a soft, almost shy smile on his lips. 

“Sounds good,” Seungmin smiles back. 

Minho takes him down between one of the many shelves of the library, takes a left, and then passes another row of shelves. As they walk, Seungmin studies the spines of books, watching as the literature goes from language studies to anatomy studies to historical fiction. Then, Minho leads him through shelves stacked to the brim with books in Japanese. The shelves then open up to a little spot, surrounded by more books, all with spines with Japanese characters, with a little table that looks to be big enough for two people. There's a large window between some of the shelves that show outside to the courtyard with large trees hiding the view. It's like a little secret spot Minho had brought him to, it was small in a cozy way and the smell of books make Seungmin shudder gleefully. He already knew this was going to be his new favorite spot. 

“Whoa,” Seungmin voices his awe, turning in a little circle to look at the little nook. 

“It's nice isn't it?” Minho grins and walks over to the little table. That's when Seungmin notices that Minho’s things were already there, and two chairs had been pushed up to the table, right across from each other. 

“More than nice,” Seungmin says, letting his bookbag fall to the floor next to the table and plopping down in the empty chair across from Minho. 

“Jeongguk showed it to me when I was a freshman,” Minho tells Seungmin, reaching down and into his bookbag for his notes. Seungmin does the same. 

“You can't be the only one who knows of this place,” Seungmin asks, his eyes still looking at everything around him in the little nook. Every time he looked he noticed something new. Like the little ledge in front of the window that looked big enough to sit on and lean back on the bookshelves. A perfect place to read. 

“It’s hard to think that I am, but I’ve never run into anyone here before,” Minho answers, and Seungmin looks back to see the student body president laying out a selection of brightly colored highlights and glittering pens. 

Seungmin looks down at the highlights and back to Minho with a quirk of his eyebrow. 

A soft blush blooms on his cheeks and he ducks his head. “I asked Jiwoo to teach me how to take notes like her and now it's the only way I can do it,” Minho answers Seungmin's silent question, his ears red.

Seungmin doesn't know why Minho is so shy at the minor revelation, but he doesn't mind seeing his cute red ears. “It's cute,” Seungmin says bluntly, and only realizes after he's said it out loud that he actually voiced his thoughts.

Minho looks up, shock evident on his face and cheeks redder than before. Seungmin laughs nervously, looking down at his notebook and opening it, busying himself with flipping to a blank page. No matter how hard he tries though, his gaze locks back onto Minho like a magnet.

“Well, thank you for showing me,” Seungmin quickly says to avoid the silence after what he had said. Butterflies thrum in his stomach and he can feel his own ears burning. 

“Well,” Minho pauses and looks at Seungmin shyly. “It’s a special occasion,” Minho says, biting his bottom lip till the normal pink skin turns white. Seungmin is tempted to reach out and free Minho’s bottom lip but thinks better of it. 

Thankfully, Minho releases his bottom lip and Seungmin can stop staring at them. Or really, now he just doesn't have an excuse. 

“Seungmin,” Minho starts, pointedly looking down at his notebook and away from Seungmins eyes. “I just wanted to thank you again for doing all of this.” 

Seungmin stares at Minho for a moment, thinking. Minho used to be the bane of his existence. Now, the previous annoyance he had felt in the student body president's presence was now replaced with fluttering butterflies. In the past, Seunmgin would have never agreed to help Minho, but now something had changed. 

“Of course,” Seungmin says, somehow completely sure of himself, but Minho was quick to interrupt. 

“It’s just,” Minho sighs, looking up to look Seungmin in the eyes, and the junior representative was a little taken away with the look in his brown gaze. “I wasn't the best president to you, and I was stubborn and I was mean-" 

“Minho,” Then it was Seungmin’s turn to interrupt him. “I am just as much to blame for our fights as you are.” 

“I guess so,” Minho chuckles a little, and that look in his eyes softens a little and he smiles that smile that Seungmin was slowly falling in love with. Seungmin couldn't even bring himself to deny it, he wanted to see Minho smile for the rest of his life. 

“Let's just drop the past, okay?” Seungmin smiles at Minho reassuringly. “And focus on the now.”

“Aren't you poetic,” Minho grins, one corner of his mouth higher than the other, and sends Seungmin's heart soaring. 

“Well, Korean is my strong suit,” Seungmin grins, and then they're both grinning at each other, eyes locked. 

Then, Minho breaks eye contact and that look from earlier is back in his eyes. “I know you said to leave it in the past, but I really want to apologize to you.” 

Seungmin blinks. “Apologize for what?”

Minho sighs, making eye contact with Seungmin. “I never got to apologize for always teasing you during our meetings, and honestly I’m not really sure why I always picked on you.” 

“Wait,” Seungmin holds a hand up to pause Minho, surprised at his words. “You always disagreed with me to pick on me?” 

“I don’t know!” Minho whines cutely. “It was just cute whenever you got all angry with me!” 

“What?” Seungmin's cheeks flare at what Minho says. Minho thought he was cute?

Minho's eyes widen when he realizes what he said and quickly throws his hands and shakes them cutely. “Wait, wait, like it was funny! Your ears would get all red and you would scrunch your face up! Like look you're doing it now!” Minho points exaggeratingly at Seungmin's face and the junior representative bursts out laughing. At Seungmin’s burst of laughter, Minho joins until all they can hear is the chorus of their laughter. Seungmin's heart completely soars, loving the way their laughter joins together in melodic harmony. He wants to listen to it forever. 

“Okay, okay,” Seungmin chokes on his laughter, wiping away the tears that had caught on his waterline from the impact of his laughter. “Well, you’re forgiven,” Seungmin assures Minho, watching as the other boy still had laughter bubbling on his lips. 

Still laughing, Minho bites his lip to try to quell his laughter, but some still manage to get past. It's an adorable sight, and Seungmin feels like he could stare at Minho forever.

“You know, Seungmin,” Minho says between his giggles. “I think you were right all those times you said that I should have just listened to you, so you could show me that you were right.”

“Really?” Seungmin’s eyes go wide at Minho’s words. 

“Yeah,” Minho confirms with a smile. “And you were right.” 

Seungmin blinks a couple of times, a little taken back at what Minho says. 

“Well,” Seungmin leans forward, resting his arms across the table. “I always thought you were cocky and annoying, but you're actually pretty amazing,” Seungmin admits, feeling his ears burn. Honestly though, when were his ears ever not burning when he was with Minho?

“I kinda deserved that,” Minho laughs sheepishly. “I was pretty awful.” 

“I wasn't much better,” Seungmin shrugs. “But that's in the past.” 

“So let's focus on the now,” Minho says with sparkling eyes. Seungmin stares, looking into Minho’s enchanting eyes and hoping that they could stay on him forever. 

“Then, let's start planning, we only have two days till the meeting,” Seungmin says, picking up one of his pens and tapping at the notebook in front of him. 

“Phew, then we better get to it,” Minho grins, picking up a pink pen from his assortment of stationary that laid beside his notebook. Seungmin can’t help but smile, his chest exploding in fondness at the small thing. 

And so Minho and Seungmin got to work. It took them a while to agree on a plan, both finding flaws within their own ideas and the others. A lot of times, Seungmin would get distracted staring at Minho pouting that he would blank on what he was saying and have to start over. Sometimes, Minho would admit to already proposing an idea and being shut down by the dean and they would have to start over again. It took them until their second meeting to finally get an idea they could agree on that made the most sense. The only catch: they couldn't do it alone. So Minho and Seungmin proposed their idea to each member of the student council, asking if they could support them if the dean approved of their ideas. Everyone agreed and Seungmin and Minho had hugged each other so tightly that it felt like they couldn't let go. They also may have stayed together a little longer than necessary. When they finally had pulled away both had a steady rose hue on their cheeks. 

Both had studied their plan relentlessly to make sure they were fully prepared for the meeting in case the dean had any questions and to help the other if needed. They had also rehearsed together and even had Mr. Song look over their ideas. Mr. Song had been shocked that Minho and Seungmin had worked together, but was able to push past it and praise them readily and give them pointers for their meeting with the dean. 

Then, Wednesday comes all too quickly, and Minho and Seungmin are standing outside the dean's office with their notebooks clutched in their arms. 

Minho’s hands are dangling at his sides, one hand clutching his notebook, his knuckles white. His eyes were wide, lips parted and breathing coming out deeper than normal despite just standing there. Seungmin could feel the anxiousness pooling off of him. 

Seungmin reaches out and grabs Minho’s hand, threading their fingers together and squeezing. Minho’s head snaps down to stare at their now connected hands, then darts up to look at Seungmin, his eyes wider than before. 

“We got this,” Seungmin smiles, rubbing his thumb along Minho’s. The student body president visibly gulps and nods his head rapidly. Seungmin laughs and squeezes Minho’s hand tighter. 

“No need to be so nervous, Minho. Take a deep breath, it's going to be okay,” Seungmin tilts his head, taking a step closer to Minho and facing him to get the president's full attention. Minho nods slowly this time, taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly.

“Are you ready?” Seungmin asks, searching Minho’s eyes for an answer, looking deep in his gaze and taking in every little speck of black in his brown irises. 

“Yeah, let's do this,” Minho squeezes Seungmin's hand back and smiles brightly at him. Seungmin is amazed at how Minho can smile so brilliantly and beautifully even when he was as nervous as he was now. Seungmin does not dwell on it, just grateful that he can be there to witness it. 

“Then, let's go,” Seungmin breathes out, realizing that maybe he was just as nervous as Minho when his breath catches on the lump in his throat.

Seungmin turns away from Minho, still clutching the auburn-haired boy's hand, and knocks on the dean's office door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh the little nook <3 i love 2min. i hope you enjoyed chapter six! give me attention grr >:]
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)


	7. chapter seven

The door to the dean's office closes with a _bang!_ and Seungmin jumps at the noise. Minho is beside him, his wide eyes trained ahead of him and knuckle white around his notebook. Seungmin can feel his heart in his throat and struggles to suck in a much-needed breath of air. 

“Oh my god,” Minho gasps out, his voice barely above a whisper. Seungmin doesn't even need to turn to look at Minho to know he's fighting the tears. He can hear it in the president's voice.

“That was,” Seungmin breathes out, his voice more steady, but just as shaky as Minho’s. 

Seungmin and Minho turn to look at each other at the same time, their faces reflecting their twin shock. Then, their faces break out into beaming smiles, and Minho flings himself at Seungmin. 

“Seungmin! That was amazing, oh my god, we did it, and it's all thanks to you, you were amazing in there, oh my god, she said yes, she's going to do it, we did it Seugnmin, oh my god, we did it, she said yes!” Minho rambles, choking on the tears that are now streaming down his face and onto Seungmins blazer. Minho is hugging Seungmin like he is his lifeline, and Seungmin wraps his arms around Minho and hugs him back tenfold. 

“We did it,” Seungmin repeats, just as shocked, burying his head into Minho’s neck. “We actually did it.” 

Memories from the meeting start flooding his mind. When they had first walked in, the dean had raised one of her eyebrows when she noticed the additional presence with Minho but did not question. Then they made their proposal. Like they had discussed before, Minho had taken the lead and had stumbled a little, but Seungmin had been there to pick him up. The dean had many questions of her own, and they answered them all quickly and efficiently. And then finally, the dean had sighed, and asked them a question, “Are you both positive with your idea? And the help you will receive behind it?” 

The two of them had nodded enthusiastically, assuring the dean that they were of the utmost confidence in their plans. The dean had nodded, clasping her hands in front of her and told them, “Then I will approve of this plan.” 

The dean then told them to meet her again next Wednesday to go over finer details to begin executing the plan, and before they had left turned to Minho and said, “Minho, I am proud of you, you realized you couldn't do this alone and reached out for help, because of this I decided to give you this chance, I trust you two to complete this mission together.” 

And that was what led to Minho sobbing into Seungmin’s shoulder, and Seungmin sniffling into Minho’s neck. 

Seungmin was gripping onto Minho, the feeling of their bodies flushed together making him feel lighter than air. They had hugged before, but they had never hugged like this. Seungmin could feel Minho everywhere.

“We need to go out and celebrate!” Minho pulls away to look at Seungmin with bright and shining eyes, and Seungmin reluctantly pulls back as well.

“Yes, we should,” Seungmin sniffles, staring at Minho, completely in awe how he could look so good even while crying his eyes out.

“I’ll call all my friends and we can all celebrate together!” Minho then does a little jump, and Seungmin can't help but coo. 

“I think I know a good place,” Seungmin grins and reaches up to wipe away the tear tracks along Minho’s cheeks.

Next thing he knows, Seungmin is calling Donghyuck, making sure there is enough space at his parent’s restaurant for a pack of nearly ten teenagers. Minho is making call after call, rambling into his phone with a beaming smile. Seungmin keeps getting distracted and ends up staring at Minho for a lot longer than necessary. Minho pulls him into a few more hugs as they make their way out of the school, and by the time they get to the bus stop, full-on holds Seungmin’s hand. 

Seungmin is really trying to focus on texting Felix about what had happened during the meetings, but Minho’s warm palm on his own is more distracting than he ever thought possible. But he would be a dead man before he pulled away from the warm contact. So maybe Felix can wait.

“Wow,” Minho breaths out, when they finally board the bus that would take them to Byeol, leaning his head back until it hits the glass window of the bus. They were on their way to meet their friends at Byeol, still, hand in hand and thighs pressed together. They were sitting in seats right next to each other, and they really didn't need to be sitting so close, but neither of them pulled away.

“Wow,” Minho breathes out again, a blissed-out smile decorating his face with eyes that were shining with unshed tears. Minho had been on the verge of tears since they left the school, and sometimes one would fall. Seungmin was always quick to reach out and stop them in their tracks. 

“Wow,” Minho says for the third time, and Seungmin bursts out into a fit of giggles. They had both shed their blazers, and the offending clothing was now tucked into their book bags that lay at their feet. They were sitting near the back, and most of the bus was empty, except for an older man in a suit near the front and another student with a different uniform than theirs a little aways from them.

“This is unreal,” Minho speaks up, his eyes on the ceiling of the bus. “I feel like I could scream.” 

And so, Minho screams. Seungmin didn't expect it, and jumps in his seat, dropping Minho’s hand that he had still been holding. The rest of the passengers jump as well, except for the student who was wearing AirPods and couldn't hear a thing. Seungmin is kind of sad about dropping Minho’s hand but doesn’t have the courage to reach back out and grab it again.

“Yah! Kid! Don't do that again!” The bus driver yells from the front of the bus and back at Minho, and the student president has the audacity to look sheepish. 

“Sorry, sir!” Minho calls back, bowing in his seat apologetically. Seungmin burst out laughing, something he does so often in Minho’s presence. 

“What was that for?” Seungmin laughs, leaning his own head back and staring at Minho.

“What? You never just get the urge to scream?” Minho looks over, cocking an eyebrow in question.

“No,” Seungmin responds hiccuping on his laughter. “Lee Minho, you sure are something.” 

“Says you!” Minho practically yells, his eyes going wide.

“Says me?” Seungmin giggles, pointing to himself.

“Yeah! You! You’re so hard to read!” Minho says enthusiastically. “You, Kim Seungmin, are an enigma!”

“An enigma?” Seungmin asks bewildered, his heart starting to beat faster in his chest.

“Yup!” Minho nods and then sits up, turning his body to face Seungmin. “Everything you do surprises me Seungmin, from when I met you till now, everything you do amazes me and is so random I can't even imagine predicting what you will do next!” Minho preaches, holding electric eye contact with Seungmin. The junior representative holds his breath, unable to look away or get his heart to slow down due to Minho's words. 

“You keep me on my toes Kim Seungmin, and it's why I like you,” Minho says, his voice now softer. Seungmin fixates on the ‘ _I like you’_ but knows Minho doesn't mean it the way he wants him to.

“I can say the same to you, Lee Minho,” Seungmin breathes out, his voice just as soft as Minho’s. 

“Well then, Kim Seungmin,” Minho falls back in his seat, still keeping eye contact with Seungmin. “We will just have to agree to disagree.” 

“Alright, Lee Minho, deal,” Seungmin says, leaning back in his seat as well. They end up just staring at each other like that, both leaning back and unable to break eye contact. Until Minho’s phone rings and he has to give someone named Hyunjin directions to Byeol. 

The rest of the bus ride goes smoothly, and soon they arrive at Byeol. Just like usual, the moon is high and bountiful in the sky, and Seungmin smiles up at it as they walk down the street. The stars twinkle down at them, and Seungmin has half the mind to chart them but instead chooses to chart the ones reflecting in Minho’s eyes. When they reach the street Byeol is on, the big bright lights of Byeol are beautifully blinding as usual and make Seungmin smile fondly. 

“This is it,” Seungmin says as they reach the front door, and pulls on it, hearing the familiar chimes. They walk in and a head of faded pastel rainbows on soft brown hair pops out from the back door. 

“Seungmin!” Donghyuck scrambles out from the back, his lips parted and eyes slightly wide. “I was so shocked at your call, are you really having a party here tonight?”

Seungmin shrugs, looking over at Minho with a smile. “Something like that, Donghyuck,” Seungmin answers. 

Then Donghucks gaze finds Minho, and a small crease of confusion implements itself between his eyebrows. Minho notices the look and quickly introduces himself. 

“Hi, I’m Lee Minho,” Minho smiles warmly.

The crease deepens between Donghyuck’s eyebrows, his eyes still on Minho. “You’re Minho? I thought Seungmin hated you.”

Seungmin begins coughing frantically. “Whoa whoa whoa, no no no, I didn't hate Minho, miscommunication, plenty of that, lots of miscommunication, no hate, none, zero, just incredible annoyance, some discomfort, just not hate, no hate, none of that,” Seungmin rambles, laughing and coughing between his words and being extremely awkward. He glances between Minho and Donghyuck, waving his arms almost as crazy as his words. 

“Got it, okay,” Donghyuck nods at Seungmin, not entirely convinced. “How about I just show you to your table?” 

“Yeah, that would be great,” Minho answers for Seungmin, who was still waving his arms. Seungmin’s heart was pounding against his rib cage, at a pace that almost made him afraid it would break his ribs.

There were a couple more patrons in Byeol, a couple in the front sharing a plate of noodles, and two older women at a booth chatting. Besides that, it was empty. Near the back, Donghyuck had moved together some tables that would seat eight, perfect for their little celebration. Minho and Seungmin sat down, next to each other, and slid their book bags under their seats to not get in the way. While Seungmin had gone to talk to Donghyuck, Minho had rolled up his sleeves and unbuttoned his shirt to reveal some of his chest. When Seungmin had walked back to see this he almost dropped the tray of water in his hands. That's when Minho’s friends started to pool in. 

The chime above the door to Byeol rang out, and in stumbled three noisy boys. Seungmin quickly recognizes them as 3RACHA, though they were now dressed simply compared to when they had dressed up for their performance. Seungmin recognizes Chan, and the normal shyness he had remembered feeling with Chan is completely gone. Seungmin doesn't know why, but he doesn't really care. 

“Is this it?” Jisung's voice echoes over, his head spinning around. Then his gaze finds the table Minho is at, and he shrieks. 

“Yah, Jisung, shut up,” The shortest of the bunch, Changbin, he learns, grumbles and pushes Jisung’s shoulder. 

“Look!” Jisung points at the table they were at, and the two other boys look over. Seungmin lets out a shaky breath. Seungmin was usually good with people, his mother loved to call him a people person, but he was absolutely terrified of Minho’s friends. For some reason, he terribly wanted to make a good impression, and not just because he was a part of the student council. 

Minho seems to notice, and just before the three boys can come barreling over, leans over to Seungmin and whispers, “don't be nervous, they're really good people, they'll love you.”

Seungmin looks over at Minho. Minho was already looking at him, a soft smile on his lips and eyes glistening, but this time not because of unshed tears. 

“Hate to break up... whatever this is… but we’re starving and we want some meat,” Seungmin is ripped from Minho’s gaze, and looks over to see Jisung standing pointing at the two of them. Changbin and Chan stand on either side of Jisung, staring at Minho and Seungmin with wide curious eyes. 

Seungmin panics. “I’ll go get Donghyuck,” Seugmin blurts, and jumps out of his seat, not bothering to say anything else and walks as fast as he could away from the table. Donghyuck is nowhere to be seen, and he doesn't exactly want to barge into the back where he can assume his friend is. Thankfully, before he could do anything drastic, the chimes go off, and in walks the angel himself. 

When Seungmin had called Felix earlier, he had interrupted his friend’s volleyball practice. Though since it was off-season and he didn't have any major games, Felix was able to get out of it. So in walks, Felix, wearing his off-colored practice jersey under his team’s sweat jacket, his volleyball shorts, and kneepads. Seungmin smiles fondly at the fact that he forgot to take off his knee pads. 

Felix walks inside, hiking up his gym bag on his shoulder, and looks around the restaurant. Seungmin waves his hand a little to get the attention of his friend, and when Felix finally spots him, his face lights up. 

“Seung!” Felix scurries over, his shoes squeaking on the floor. “Did the dean really approve?”

“Yeah,” Seungmin breathes out, still in shock at what had happened that day. “That's why we're here celebrating, I’m sorry I interrupted your practice.” 

“Oh it's okay, Eric was just trying to teach me how to spike as a libero,” Felix waves his hand dismissively, even though what he was doing during practice certainly sounded important. 

“Minho wanted to celebrate, so he said to invite some friends,” Seungmin then gestures to the table that now occupied four boys. Jisung, Chan, and Changbin were crowded around Minho, seemingly asking the president countless questions. “So here we are.” 

“Kim Seungmin is that Han Jisung?” Felix suddenly says. “As in the Jisung who is also J.ONE? One of the rappers in 3RACHA?”

“Huh?” Seungmin blinks. “Oh yeah, it is.” 

“Why the fuck is he here?” Felix whispers shrieks, grabbing Seungmins shoulders and shaking. 

“What do you mean!” Seungmin garbles as he continues to be violently shaken by his small friend. “He’s one of Minho’s friends!”

“So you are saying that I’m going to have to go over there and talk to him,” Felix stops shaking Seungmin long enough to glare at him.

“Felix, why is this such a big deal?” Seungmin whines, prying Felix’s little hands off of him. Then he realizes something and remembers the assembly. “Wait, don't tell me, you like Jisung?” 

“Shut up! Don’t!” Felix shrieks, so loud that everyone looks in their direction. Felix goes bright red and jumps behind Seungmin. 

“Is he looking?” Felix whispers into Seungmins back, and the junior representative looks over at their table to see Jisung staring at them, oh, and everyone else in the restaurant. 

“What the hell are you two doing?” Donghyuck comes back from the kitchen, sending the two friends a glare. “Yangyang told me you guys were causing a scene, are you trying to get me to lose customers?” 

“Sorry Donghyuck, it’s kind of a special occasion, you see, Felix has a crush,” Seungmin grins, moving so Felix was no longer hidden. 

“Felix, oh my god, you finally have a crush!” Donghyuck squeals, also aware of Felix and his non-existent crushes. 

“Yes and I don’t know what the fuck to do!” Felix says, his normally deep voice now a high pitched whine. 

“Are they here? Is it one of the guys you're with Seungmnin? Which one is it?” Donghyuck looks over at the table, not even trying to hide his staring. 

“The one with the round cheeks,” Seungmin whispers to Donghyuck. 

“I hate you both,” Felix mumbles into his hands, trying to hide his burning cheeks. 

“Well go, go, I’ll bring out the food soon, go and, I don't know, seduce,” Donghyuck pushes the two of them towards the table, and just before they get there whispers to Seungmin, “don't forget your own loverboy.” 

Seungmin’s cheeks flare and before he could turn and run, Chan notices them and shouts, “Felix! Mate! What’s up?” 

And just like that, they're quickly added into the conversation. Eventually, two other boys join them, one with long black silky hair that Felix immediately recognizes and calls out to. Seungmin ends up learning his name is Hyunjin and in the dance team with Felix. Seungmin also remembers him as the other dancer who danced at the assembly with Minho. A little while after another boy with fox-like eyes and dark blue hair walks in, and almost the entire table erupts at his entrance. Seungmin learns his name is Jeongin and that he's a sophomore, the designated baby of the group. Jisung keeps trying to pinch Jeongins cheeks, but the younger keeps swatting him away with all his might. 

A couple of times, Seungmin catches Jisung staring at Felix and smirks to himself. At one instance that it looks like Jisung is finally going to talk to Felix, Hyunjin spills his water and it gets all over Jisungs lap. 

They're all chaotic and the biggest mess Seungmin has ever seen, but it's the most fun he has ever had. Seungmin is laughing until his stomach is screaming at him, and finds himself making friends with everyone at the table. 

He’s still sitting next to Minho and gets front row seats to watch every time the president bursts out in laughter. His laugh is music to Seungmin’s ears, and many times just stares at Minho, wanting to witness everything he does. 

Then Donghyuck drops off the food and if it wasn't chaos before it sure was now. Changbin and Chan battle over grilling the meat, and Hyunjin and Jisung fight over everything. At one point Jisung tries to stab Hyunjin with his chopsticks when they were both fighting for a piece of beef on the grill. 

Eventually, Jisung and Felix somehow split off from the group, and sit towards the end of the table talking in their own little world. Seungmin catches Jisung feeding a piece of meat to Felix, and Seungmin has to hold back his laugh at seeing how much his friend blushes. 

“They're cute,” Minho whispers into Seungmin’s ears, his voice soft. 

“They are,” Seungmin smiles. “Who would have known though.” 

“I mean it does make sense, I’ve only known Felix for the past hour but it's clear to see he's just a ball of sunshine, and so is Jisung,” Minho says, and Seungmin looks over to look at him. Minho was watching Jisung and Felix, the fondest smile on his face. 

“A perfect match,” Seungmin grins. 

Then what Minho does next surprises Seungmin more than anything Minho has ever done before. Minho leans in and presses his soft full lips delicately against his cheek, so close to Seungmin’s lips that it can almost be called off as a peck on his lips, and stays there for much longer than necessary, but Seungmin is _not_ complaining. Minho pulls back, and Seungmin is faintly aware of the attention they're getting from their friends but is too shocked to care. He can still feel the ghost of the kiss Minho had planted on his cheek and doesn't think he’ll be forgetting anytime soon. 

“Thank you, Seungmin,” Minho whispers, still so close to Seungmin that he feels faint. Seungmin looks over to Minho with wide eyes, their faces now so close that he can feel the ghost of the president's breath against his face. 

“For, for what?” Seungmin stutters, feeling the stares they're getting from the rest of the table. 

“Everything,” Minho says, his eyes searching Seungmins face. “If it wasn't for you, none of this would have happened.”

“It was all you Minho,” Seungmin whispers, feeling his face burning. 

“Kim Seungmin,” Minho says almost sternly, looking Seungmin deep in the eyes. “You heard what the dean said, it was because of you that she accepted our proposal.” 

“Actually,” Seungmin quirks an eyebrow at Minho. “She said it was because you reached out for help.” 

“Okay okay,” Minho rolls his eyes cutely, but then quickly is back to looking Seungmin in the eyes. “But if it wasn't for your amazing help, none of this would have been possible.”

Seungmin was about to retaliate, trying to convince Minho that he was the really amazing one but Changbin was quick to interrupt him. “Can you guys not do this in front of my meat? I’m trying to eat here.” Changbin says and stuffs a big piece of lettuce and meat into his mouth. 

The entire table bursts out in laughter, and Seungmin is stuck there with burning cheeks. Minho begins laughing with his friends, and Seungmin looks over, a smile blooming on his face at the gorgeous sight. Seungmin joins in on the laughter. And he laughs for the rest of the night, finding a home at that cramped table surrounded by his new friends. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JILIX MY PRIDE AND JOY! its not a hwanglix fic without some kind of jilix! i love skz friendship so i had to include it somehow in my fic, and it resulted in this chapter! i hope you enjoyed chapter seven! tell me ur thoughts in the comments! ur attention i crave.
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)


	8. chapter eight

It was Friday, and Minho and Seungmin were seated in their favorite little nook in the back of the library surrounded by the books in Japanese. 

Before today, Seungmin hadn't seen Minho since that Wednesday after their idea got accepted by the dean and they had a barbecue with their friends at Byeol in celebration. It had only been a day, but it had really affected Seungmin. Still, he had been too shy to reach out. Maybe it was because after Minho had kissed his cheek that day, Seungmin was finally able to place meaning behind the feelings he had been feeling for Minho since their fight.  _ Seungmin likes Minho _ .

That morning when Seungmin had walked into school, Minho had run up to him, a big beautiful smile on his face, and asked to meet him in the library for lunch. Seungmin of course, agreed. There was no chance he would say no to Lee Minho. 

Both of them were doing their own thing, Minho had a textbook out and an impressively organized notebook taking notes with a bunch of different colored pens, and Seungmin was writing. Minho had an airpod in one of his ears, he had told Seungmin a while ago that he couldn’t take notes without music because listening to music helped him focus. Seungmin didn’t understand it, but he definitely thought it was cute when Minho would bob his head to whatever he was listening to and taping one of his pens against his notebooks to a beat the younger couldn't hear. Sometimes, Seungmin would even catch Minho mouthing the lyrics and would watch almost hypnotized at the way his lips would move. Minho had really pretty lips. Sometimes, Minho would look up and catch Seungmin staring and his cheeks would flare red. Minho would only smile at him, a cloud of rosy dust over his own cheeks before going back to his notes. 

Working with Minho proved to be a nice and surprisingly relaxing experience. Usually, Seungmin would work alone, preferring his own silence than the company of others. Ever since Minho though, his feelings had changed. Minho had come into his life and scrambled everything around, in such an amazing way. It was almost like Minho was his missing puzzle piece. 

Seungmin tore his gaze away from where he was watching Minho mouth along to a song he recognized. It was a Day6 song, a song that he himself had recommended to Minho. Whenever he would catch Minho listening to music he had recommended, his heart would do backflips in his chest. Seungmin turns his gaze towards the large window just to his left and looks out of the clear glass. There was a row of trees just outside the window, their green leaves swaying in the cool wind. He was in a daze, watching the sun filter through the flowing leaves and paint his surrounding in glowing sunlight. Seungmin thinks, _ there is nowhere else I would rather be _ . 

“Hey,” Suddenly, Minho whispers, pulling Seungmin from the daze he had caught himself in. Seungmin looks over and sees Minho grinning at him, one of his AirPods resting on his notebook, the other still in his ear. 

“Hi,” Seungmin responds, grinning himself. 

“Whatcha thinkin about?” Minho tilts his head, looking just like a curious kitten. Seungmin has to hold back a coo. 

“It’s just a really nice day,” Seungmin smiles easily, his good mood reflecting in his natural smile. 

“It really is,” Minho turns his head and looks out the window, taking in the glowing sun and dancing leaves. Seungmin leans forward, resting his arms on the desk in front of him, and gazes at Minho, watching the light filtering through the trees and dance across his skin. 

“Perfect for the game today,” Seungmin mentions, remembering that their team had one more game that day before they left the next week to begin games for nationals. 

“It's going to be us and Soobin helping out again, right?” Minho takes his gaze away from the window and transfers it to Seungmin, his eyes dancing with light just like outside.

“You’re the president, you know this,” Seungmin teases with a grin. 

Minho laughs softly and rolls his eyes at Seungmin. “I know, I just wanted to hear it from you.” 

“Then, yes, I’ll be there tonight,” Seungmin assures Minho. 

“Good,” Minho smiles, biting his bottom lip lightly as if to suppress the enchanting smile across his face.

Even though nothing is more beautiful than the sight of Minho in front of him, Seungmin begins getting shy and has to look away. He brings his gaze back outside, trailing his eyes over the expanse of foliage. It was always easy for Seungmin to lose himself in his head. When he was younger, his mother would always call him her little daydreamer. Though he wasn't daydreaming now, he was thinking. 

The last time he had liked someone was Chan. But what he felt for Chan then was completely incomparable to what he felt now for Minho. His crush on Chan was like puppy love, something that had been easily forgotten. When he really thought about it, could he really have called it a crush? Chan was a popular upperclassman at the time and known for the baseball team. Everyone had some form of a crush on him. With Minho, it was so different.

Minho occupied his mind all the time. And it wasn't just the subtle thinking of Minho, it was also the yearning for him. Sometimes it completely consumed him, and he couldn't get the images of holding Minho’s hand or kissing him under the stars out of his head. Seungmin wanted to make him smile, brush his fingers against his cheek while staring in his eyes, and kiss away any frown that dared fall upon his lips. Seungmin wanted to cuddle with Minho and watch cheesy rom coms and walk him to class hand in hand. He wanted to be able to shout from the rooftops ‘Lee Minho is my boyfriend!’.

Seungmin has no idea how he had gotten here. It felt like just a couple weeks ago he was cursing the other boy's name, and now all he wanted was to kiss Minho senseless. 

“You're friends with Chan right?” Seungmin asks, and he's not sure why, he just does. There was just something in the back of his mind telling him to. 

“Yeah, we literally hung out with him on Wednesday,” Minho scoffs, now taking out both of his AirPods to focus on Seungmin. It made his heart flutter. “He’s like a brother to me.” 

“Oh yeah,” Seungmin says dumbly, looking down at his notebook that was scribbled in his handwriting shyly. 

Minho laughs. “What about him?”

“I just remembered I used to like him,” Seungmin blurts, not thinking before speaking. 

“What?” Minho visibly freezes, a deep crease of confusion implementing itself between his eyebrows.

“Oh, I actually said that,” Seungmin says dumbfounded, surprised with himself for revealing his former crush to Minho. Seungmin isn't sure why he said that. Deep down he knows why, but he's too ashamed to admit it. 

“Used to, right?” Minho asks, still frozen. There was something in his voice that made Seungmin regret ever speaking. 

“Yeah, I was a sophomore,” Seungmin quickly tries to reassure Minho. 

“You liked him last year?” Minho asks his eyes wide and disbelieving. When Seungmin looks closer, his eyes are a little sad too. 

“Yeah, it’s why I volunteered for baseball so much,” Seungmin admits, still really unsure why he’s still talking. 

“Oh,” Minho says softly. 

“I even wrote him a love letter before school ended,” Seungmin reaches up and tugs at his bangs nervously, just wanting an excuse to do something with his hands. 

“That was you?” Minho says loudly, his eyes wider than before. 

“What?” It's Seungmin’s turn to freeze. “You know about that?”

“Yeah, he told us, oh my god, that was you?” Minho’s eyes are comically wide, and he doesn't look as sad as before. Seungmin is extremely glad. 

“Oh my god, now I'm so embarrassed,” Seungmin whines and lets his head fall until his forehead presses against his notebook. “It was such a stupid crush!”

“I remember that letter,” Minho laughs from across the table. “Chan had been so confused because he had no clue who it could be!” 

Seungmin groans and brings his arms up to the table, and precedes to try and bury himself in his arms. Then, Minho's laughter recedes and the boy across from him becomes quiet. Seungmin lifts his head up, a little concerned. 

Minho was staring at him, his face passive. It was a look he hadn't seen on Minho since they had their fight. 

“You don't like him anymore, right?” Minho asks, his face still passive and Seungmin couldn't even begin to guess to know what the other boy was feeling. 

“No, I don't,” Seungmin says with as much clarity as he can muster. “It was just puppy love, nothing more.” 

“Good,” Minho finally smiles, and it takes Seungmins breath away. Or maybe it was because of what he said, and the way he smiled right after. Whatever it was, Minho was gorgeous, breathtaking, enchanting and every other positive adjective he could think of. 

“Why?” Seungmin dares himself to ask, his gaze never leaving Minho. 

“Just good,” Minho grins, and Seungmin is so gone for the boy in front of him it's almost laughable. “Now get back to writing, lunch is almost over,” Minho tuts, and slides one of his AirPods back into his ears. Seungmin listens, picking his pen back up, but his gaze refusing to leave Minho. 

Maybe it's the way Minho had talked to him, or the look in his eyes, but Seungmin dared to let himself hope, and boy, did he  _ hope _ . 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a tiny lil chapter for a more insight on seungmin and minho ! hope you enjoyed chapter eight !
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)


	9. chapter nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wow.. ahah i wont say anything. hope you enjoyed chapter nine! we're almost done ! ily give me attention

“Let’s go Jisung!” Seungmin cups his hands around his mouth and calls out to the field and to Jisung, who was standing on the mound. Everyone else in the dugout choruses his cheers until the entire dugout is screaming Jisung’s name. 

Seungmin trails his eyes across the field finding the people he recognized. Chenle was at third base transferring his weight between each foot as he anticipated Jisung’s pitch, and Chan was at second base adjusting the hat on his head. Everyone on the field looked anxious, which was understandable. Jisung wasn't having a good night, to say the least. He started out fine, striking out the first batter, walking the second, and getting a hit the third which the fielders then easily got a double out.

By the time the second inning rolled around, things weren't going as well as the first. Jisung walked the first two batters, managed to barely strike out the third, but then the fourth batter hit one of his pitches to the outfield. The opposing team scored two runs with the hit and Jisung was out of it for the rest of the game. 

Seungmin had heard from Chenle that he was practicing a new pitching form which he was struggling with getting the hang of. Before Jisung had just pitched what felt comfortable with no real form backing him up. Their coach taught him a new form hoping it would help with his pitching. Chenle told him that Jisung knew it would help him once he got the hang of it, but it increased his insecurities. 

“He isn't looking good,” Minho says from beside him, his eyes fixated on the field and eyebrows softly drawn together. Jisung pitched and the ball smacked into the catcher's mitt loudly, but the umpires resounding ‘Ball!’ made everyone in the dugout frown. 

“It really isn't,” Seungmin replies. Seungmin wants to reach out and hold Minho’s hand or wrap an arm around his waist, just  _ anything _ to get some type of affection from the other. After they had split from lunch earlier that day, Seungmin could not stop thinking about the conversation they had. He was itching to ask Minho more questions, dying for the answers, but like usual he was too shy to ask.

The rest of the inning goes slowly, so slowly that Seungmin ends up having time to continuously pace the length of the dugout. The players run in, crowding around Jisung and patting his back. The tall boy has his head ducked down, face not visible due to the bill of his cap. Then Chenle runs over and gets Jisung to look up and then the two exchange hushed whispers. Then Chan pushes himself to the front and to Jisung, and the tall sophomore nods solemnly at what the captain says. After talking to Jisung, Chan runs to the coach, and Seungmin is just left watching not knowing what's going on. 

“Mark!” The coach suddenly calls out, startling everyone. “Go warm up your shoulder, now.” 

“Yes, yes sir!” Mark scrambles forward and nods towards the coach, anticipation painted on his face. 

“Hey you,” The coach then looks over at Seungmin, nodding at him. “Go get some extra balls.” Seungmin nods back, a little hurt that the coach still didn't know his name even though he's been volunteering for almost two years. 

“I’ll go with him,” Minho speaks up, but nobody is paying attention but Seungmin. Though Seungmin is always paying attention to Minho. The student body president pushes past the sweaty bodies of the players until he’s standing right in front of Seungmin, having to tilt his head a little due to their high differences. The baseball hat he's wearing casts a shadow across his face that just makes the soft curves of his face prettier. 

“Let’s go, yeah?” Minho grins that beautiful blinding smile that Seungmin adores and all the junior representatives can do is nod dumbly in acknowledgment. It makes Minho giggle, and he starts walking out of the dugout, looking over his shoulder at Seungmin. 

“I’m right behind you,” Seungmin grins and follows close behind Minho as they walk out of the dugout. They were both wearing the awful uniforms that as ball boys they had to wear for games. Usually, he would complain until his tongue bled, but being able to watch Minho walk in the uniform was certainly something he was  _ not _ complaining about. 

“You would think they would have prepared for this,” Minho slows down a little so they can walk side by side. Now their hands would brush against each other every time their arms would swing, and Seungmin badly wants to just say fuck it and thread their fingers together. 

“Well then what would the use of us be?” Seungmin counters, looking over at Minho with a grin. 

“Good point there,” Minho laughs and then starts running ahead, looking back at Seungmin with a wicked grin. “Think you can keep up Kim?” 

“Yah, you bet on it, Lee!” Seungmin calls out after Minho before he's running after the president, their laughter bubbling into the air. 

All of the baseball team's equipment was kept in the shed that was just behind the field. It was a decent walk from the field and a hell of a trek from the school. That's the best bet they would find baseballs, so that's where they were going. 

Minho was a decent way ahead of him, and Seungmin could hear his faint giggles in the night air. They were following a dirt trail that led to the shed, and if it had been any darker Seungmin might have been a little scared. Thankfully, it was still light enough that Seungmin could see ahead of him with the setting sun's light. 

Minho reaches the shed before him and slams his hand against the shed wall in victory. Then Minho looks back, and Seungmin almost trips over himself when he sees the large beaming smile on Minho’s face. It's extraordinary and brighter than any star he has ever seen in the sky. 

“Looks like you're too slow, Kim,” Minho pants and beams at Seungmin, his hand still on the shed wall proudly. 

“Or you're just too fast, Lee,” Seungmin breathes out, his breathing a little labored from running. He really should probably try to get into shape. 

“I’m just thankful Chan let me skip leg day yesterday,” Minho giggles, letting his hand fall from the shed's wall. Seungmin is then very rudely reminded that Minho does in fact work out. Memories from the last baseball game they had volunteered together for play like a film strip in his head. It takes him until Minho slides open the shed door that he is ripped from the memories by the loud noise. Though the image of Minho’s arms is still very noisy in his head. 

“Alright, now where is the light,” Minho walks in, his head tilted up in search of the little lightbulb that would illuminate the shed for them. There is some light coming in from the open door, but it doesn't do well to light the farthest corners of the room. “Hey, Minnie,” Minho calls, using the nickname he had started using that made Seungmins heart skip beats. “Can you help me?” 

“What do you need?” Seungmin follows Minho’s voice, ready to do whatever the older needs of him. 

“I just, I can't reach,” Minho says small, pointing up at the little metal that hangs down to turn on the light. Seungmin’s heart explodes. 

“Really now?” Seungmin teases. Minho was only a couple inches shorter than Seungmin, not a big difference, but sometimes in instances like now, it showed itself. 

“Oh shush and just turn on the light,” Minho says and Seungmin can hear the pout in his voice. 

“Patience, Minho,” Seungmin continues teasing, loving the current moment. Seungmin reaches up and tugs at the little metal, and the little bulb flickers to life and lowly illuminates the room. It's a soft light, not really bright but it's enough so they can look around and see everything in the shed that wasn't already illuminated from the light outside. 

“Alright, now let's find some baseballs,” Minho says, and starts to turn in a little circle in search of the baseballs they had been sent to fetch. 

They both separate to different sides of the room, Minho going to the far corner, and Seugnmin staying at the front and looking around all the bulky equipment. 

“You would think they would have thousands of baseballs laying around,” Minho laughs from where he's digging through things in the corner of the shed. 

“Seriously,” Seungmin laughs with him, moving a weird-looking net to see if there were any buckets of balls behind it. “Like maybe a couple of buckets in the front ready to grab whenever.” 

Minho responds with a hum, and Seungmin can hear rustling from where the president is. Seungmin moves yet another net out of the way, but still, no baseballs. 

“Hey! I think I found some, can you come help me?” Suddenly Minho calls out, and Seungmin is very thankful to abandon the equipment he was milling through to be beside Minho again. 

“Yeah,” Seungmin calls back. “Too short again?”

“Oh shut up, Minnie,” Minho says and rolls his eyes, waiting for Seungmin with a hand on his hip. Seungmin laughs at the sight and walks over with a grin on his face. Everything Minho did was stupidly endearing for him now, from the little things like the way he would walk to the way he would push away some of his fringes when it would fall into his eyes. And especially now, looking at Seungmin with that mischievous smile and the hand on his hip. Minho was the cutest thing he had ever seen. 

“So, what do you need?” Seungmin asks and just like before, ready to do whatever Minho needed of him. 

“I think I see a bucket of baseballs, but there's this thing in the way,” Minho says, pointing at a weird-looking contraption. Seungmin eyes it, and spots the bucket of baseballs behind it. 

“Then let's just, move, whatever this is,” Seungmin looks over at Minho with a laugh at his lips, and Minho grins. The student body president walks to the other side of the machine, eyes locked on Seungmin. 

“Let’s just hope this isn't another cooler situation,” Minho grins evilly at Seungmin, and the junior representative very exaggeratingly rolls his eyes. It makes Minho laugh, the noise bouncing around the room and filling all of Seugmin’s senses. 

“Oh shut up, let's just lift this thing,” Seungmin grumbles which just makes Minho laugh more. They both then count down and easily lift the machine and move it just a little way so they could reach in and grab the bucket of balls. Minho steps away from the machine and reaches for the bucket, but his fingers just graze the bucket. 

“Need help again?” Seungmin asks, letting a grin slide onto his face. 

“Oh shut up and just come here and help me,” Minho whines, still desperately trying to reach the bucket of baseballs. From here, Seungmin can gaze at Minho’s side profile, and he really would love to just stand there and stare forever. 

Seungmin walks around the machine, and walks slowly over to Minho, wanting to be able to gaze at his side profile just a little longer. Sadly, he’s beside Minho all too quickly. He leans down, easily reaching out and grabbing the lid to the bucket of balls and pulling. 

Minho groans at how easy Seungmin grabs it and Seungmin chuckles in response. 

“See not so bad,” Seungmin continues to chuckle, pulling the bucket of balls until they were completely out in the open. Minho just whines. 

Then Seungmin sits, up and turns to look at Minho and _oh_ -

Seungmin knew he had been standing close to Minho, just not  _ this _ close. Minho was standing so close to him that he had to tilt his head up to look Seungmin in the eyes, the bill of his baseball hat almost brushing against his forehead. 

Seungmin isn't really sure how they got here. He was somehow unintentionally cornering Minho against the shed’s wall, completely in the other's space, though Minho was making no moves to push him away.

They were so close that if Seungmin really wanted to, all he had to do was just lean forward and their lips would be pressed together. The thought shocks him, but not more than the fact that he  _ really wants to _ . Seungmin searches Minho's eyes, looking for any possible chance that the president could be thinking the same thing he is, feeling the same way as him. 

Seungmin gulps, bringing his hand up to fold his fingers over the bill of the baseball hat Minho was wearing, and slowly, oh so slowly, pulls it off his head. Minho doesn’t flinch, doesn’t even move, just continues to stare in Seungmin's eyes as he pulls the cap off. 

Maybe he wanted this too. 

Seungmin throws the cap to the ground, still staring into Minho’s eyes. Minho’s lips part and his tongue darts out to lick his lips, his hot breath fanning over Seungmin's face and smelling like the sunflower seeds they had been sharing earlier. Seungmin wants to taste it on his tongue. Minho doesn’t move, he stays there, in Seungmin’s space and he decides to be daring. 

“Can,” Seungmin breathes out, his heart beating against his chest, “can I kiss you?” 

Minho’s eyes blow wide, letting out a tiny gasp at Seungmin’s words. Seungmin is scared he’s read the entire situation wrong and is ready to step back and profusely apologize, but Minho’s next words interrupt his panic. 

“Yes, god, yes please,” Minho says barely above a whisper and licks his lips again, his eyes darting to Seungmin’s own. 

And that's all Seungmin needed to hear before he’s surging forward and pressing his lips against Minho's. 

Minho was his sun, and just like Icarus, Seungmin was going to  _ burn _ . 

First, it was just a surge of his lips, pressing against Minho’s for a second before Seungmin was pulling back, fear in his veins that this was actually not what Minho wanted. Though when Seungmin pulls back and looks into Minho's eyes and saw the hunger when he opened them, he knew that they both want this. 

Minho beat him to kissing back, surging forward and capturing Seungmin’s lips in his own, almost knocking them both over in his haste to connect their lips. Their lips slid together, lighting a fire under Seungmin’s skin and making him realize just how much he wanted this. 

And suddenly Minho's hands were on his waist, digging into his skin and pulling him impossibly close, kissing him like he was starving. Seungmin couldn't put it past Minho, because kissing the student body president made him feel like he had been missing out on heaven. Seungmin snuck his hands under Minho's arms and around to his back, splaying his palms open and running his fingers down the president's spine to feel his shivers. Seungmin could taste the salty tang of the sunflower seeds they had eaten earlier on Minho’s tongue and basked in the taste along with the undeniable taste of  _ Minho _ .

Minho nips at Seungmin’s bottom lip, and the younger lets out a breathy groan and pushes Minho back until the latter is pushed up against the shed's wall. A little sound escapes Minho’s throat at the soft collision, and he just kisses Seungmin harder in retaliation. Seungmin really could not believe what was happening, but he never wanted it to stop. 

Everything Minho was giving Seungmin was lighting a spark under his skin that was sending his low humming attraction into a full-blown desire. Seungmin doesn't think twice before retreating his hands from Minho’s body and pulling at the front of Minho’s jersey and untucking it. Minho gasps as Seungmin’s cold hands run up his bare skin, along the shallow curve of his waist and back down to rest at his hip and rub circles into the soft skin.

Minho tilts his head kissing Seungmin deeper, and he has never felt this happy before. Seungmin was absolutely overjoyed, feeling like he was so high he would never touch the ground again. Minho likes him back, or at least he could assume by the way Minho was hungrily kissing him back. 

They stayed like that for what felt like forever, Seungmin kissing Minho against the shed’s wall, their hands holding onto each other, almost like they were afraid if they let go the other would run, but there with Minho, Seungmin had never felt so  _ right _ . 

Though of course, they just had to be interrupted. 

Somehow while their hands were roaming each other's bodies, and heads tilting to feel the other more, someone knocks over the bucket of baseballs and it falls over with a  _ crash! _

They surge away from each other, Minho not being able to move much, still pressed against the shed’s wall. The sound of the bucket of baseballs falling over was like a bucket of cold water being thrown over his head, sobering him from the drug of Minho but not ceasing his new addiction. 

They stand there staring at each other, their eyes blown wide unsure of what just happened between them. It was like they were a cord, and had been strung so tight that they had finally snapped that night unexpectedly. 

Minho is a mess, and Seungmin can only assume he looks like a mess too. Minho’s normally soft pink lips now kiss swollen and a firm red. Staring at them just makes Seungmin want to dive forward again. 

“We, we should go back,” Minho suddenly says, his breath coming out fast. Seungmin can't stop staring at his kiss swollen lips, in awe at how it was because of him. Suddenly he's swarmed with the thought that he likes seeing Minho's lips like that and knowing he's the cause.

“Yeah, yeah,” Seungmin stutters, his breathing coming out just as labored as the older's.

“Uh, what were we here for again?” Minho asks, wide eyes looking around the shed. Seungmin suddenly remembers that they were actually here for something, and not to just make out against the wall of the shed.

“Baseballs,” Seungmin says, still being able to feel the ghost of Minho against him. “We came here for extra baseballs.” 

Then Seungmin remembers that it was the bucket of baseballs falling over that broke them apart and looks down. 

“Fuck,” Seungmin breathes out. The baseballs were  _ everywhere _ . Most of the bucket had spilled and now there were baseballs in every corner of the shed, though thankfully there were still some in the bottom of the bucket. 

Beside him, Minho lets out a long sigh. “Guess we better get started.”

Seungmin nods numbly, even though he rather push Minho against the shed’s wall again and kiss him until he can't remember his own name. But instead, Seungmin leans down and lifts the bucket back up, and starts to toss some of the balls laying around inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Minho tucking his jersey back into his pants. A soft blush lights Seungmin’s cheeks as he remembers untucking it just a bit before.

From there, it takes them a bit to wrangle all the baseballs back into the bucket, but once they do, they rush out of the shed. They both take one side of the bucket and carry it together. They walk back to the field in silence. 

Seungmin can't get the feeling of Minho’s hands on his waist out of his head, or the way he tilted his head to deepen their kiss. It sent swarms of butterflies fluttering in his stomach, to the point he was slightly afraid he might cough up a butterfly. 

Their walk to the baseball field seems like forever with their almost intense silence. Something he always loved about spending time with Minho was, there was never any heavy silences. They were always talking, always laughing, or just enjoying each other's presence. At the moment, he wasn't really sure what was happening between them. 

And like usual, they were interrupted  _ again _ .

“Where the fuck have you two been?” Chan comes running down the path, his batting gloves on and helmet snug on his head. His eyes were wide, and even though he had run to them, was breathing more even than Seungmin was. “You guys are lucky we found some extra ones.”

“Not our fault you guys weren't prepared,” Minho snarks and then lifts the container of balls they were carrying up. “You want these?” 

Chan then notices their appearances. He squints his eyes at the two and takes in the slightly disheveled hair, Minho’s messily tucked in shirt, and their kiss swollen lips. “Did you two..?” 

Seungmin panics, and practically shrieks, “No! Nothing happened!” just as Minho quickly replies “Nothing happened!”

Seungmin's heart catches in his chest and he looks over to Minho, just to see the other boy already staring at him. Minho’s eyes are wide and vulnerable, and Seungmin just wants to reach over and pull the boy into his arms. 

“Yeah…” Chan says and looks at them suspiciously, not convinced at all, “nothing happened.”

“Exactly,” Minho gulps, not taking his eyes off Seungmin. 

“Nothing happened,” Seungmin finishes. 

“Yeah, sure, I’m just going to take these and let you two work through whatever is clearly going on,” Chan says, effectively breaking eye contact between the council members, and takes the bucket of baseballs from their hands. Chan doesn't bother checking on the two one last time before he's turning around and all but running back to the field. 

Once Chan was far enough away, Seungmin turns back to Minho, his heart constricting, and asks, “nothing happened?” 

Minho looks over to Seungmin, his eyes wide and vulnerable, “I don't know what happened,” the president whispers. 

“Neither do I,” Seungmin answers honestly. Though he still terribly wants to feel Minho’s lips against his, and maybe push Minho against the nearest wall and kiss him senseless. Maybe even after hold his hand and stare into his eyes forever. 

“We, we should go back,” Minho whispers, breaking eye contact with Seungmin and looking out to the field that was just on the distance. The bouncing form of Chan was still visible and Seungmin decides to focus on that rather than his sinking heart. 

“Yeah,” Seungmin nods, gulping on the lump in his throat. “Yeah let's go back.” 

The rest of the walk to the field is in silence. When they get back to the dugout, they always stay near each other but don’t exchange another word for the rest of the night. Chan sends them a couple of concerned looks, but Seungmin ignores them all. 

The game seems to go on forever. Jisung gets switched out with Mark after another inning, and the game goes more smoothly afterward. Jisung sits in the back of the dugout with a towel over his hanging head, and Seungmin sits beside him, rubbing his back. When the teams switch and Chenle is back in the dugout, Seungmin leaves them alone. When the game finally ends, it couldn't have been sooner. Though what happens before he leaves surprises him almost as much as just earlier when he had kissed Minho in the shed. 

“Good night,” Minho runs up to Seungmin, his eyes wide and lips now back to their natural pink hue, no longer kiss swollen. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Minho whispers, before bringing a hand up to cup Seungmins jaw and pull him down, slightly leaning up on his tippy toes, and places a kiss on the corner of his mouth. 

Before Seungmin can respond, Minho runs off, leaving him even more confused than before. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow.. is it hot in here or is it just me? ahah i wont say anything more. hope you enjoyed chapter nine! we're almost done ! ily give me attention
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)
> 
> update! here is some AMAZING [fanart](https://twitter.com/koalaquarelle/status/1325859601116434433?s=20) based off of 2min in their baseball uniforms! please go give it lots of love!!


	10. chapter ten

_Seungmin’s lips trail from Minho’s jaw down to his neck, leaving soft kisses in his wake. Minho shivers when Seungmin presses a kiss on a sweet spot on his neck, and releases a content sigh, pulling Seungmin closer. Seungmin bites down on Minho’s soft skin and the president tenses in Seungmin’s arms but continues to pull the younger closer. Then Minho threads his fingers through Seungmin’s soft hair and pulls him up to reconnect their lips in a searing kiss. Minho kisses with a ferocity that leaves Seungmin restless, wanting to give Minho everything that he is giving Seungmin. So Seungmin daringly slips his hand under the hem of Minho’s shirt and lays his hand on his soft tummy, caressing the skin._

Seungmin surges awake, the ghost of Minho's body weighing him down. Memories from his dream run around his head, pushing away any other thoughts. He can feel the faint ghost of Minho’s lips on his skin, the hands gripping his body, and threading through his hair. 

Pushing off the sheets on his bed that was slowly starting to feel suffocating, Seungmin sits up and aggressively shakes his head. The memories remain. 

With a groan, Seungmin falls back down in his bed and burrows his head into his pillow, the memories from his dream burning onto his eyelids. He can't even begin to complain, and that's what annoys him the most. He loves the images, it makes butterflies erupt into his stomach and makes him yearn more than he ever thought possible. 

Sighing, Seungmin reaches for his phone, wanting to turn off his alarm before it could go off since he woke up before it. Plus he needed that good 30 minutes of scrolling through social media to properly wake himself up. Seungmin ignores the first notification on his phone, focusing on turning off his alarm and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Once the alarm is off he gives himself the time to look at his notifications and then drops his phone on his face when he sees a certain notification from Lee Minho. 

The notification wakes him up like a bucket of ice water being thrown over his head. He doesn’t think twice before he is swiping the notification open. 

**From:** **_minmeow_ **

can we meet before the bake sale starts?

It was sent only six minutes ago.

Seungmin stares at the notification, his heart pounding so loudly in his chest he could feel its faint pulse in his throat. _Can we meet before the bake sale starts?_

That's right, today was Saturday, the day of the bake sale. Which meant, yesterday was the baseball game, the night Minho and Seungmin had made out against a shed wall. 

Seungmin falls back face-first into his pillow groaning.

All last night, Seungmin couldn’t stop thinking about their kiss, and everything after. He was still completely hung up on the kiss, but what really overtook his mind was Minho’s reaction. Minho had almost pretended Seungmin didn't exist, just like when they had fought. Granted, Seungmin had too. He had been scared, absolutely terrified that Minho had thought the kiss was a mistake. 

Seungmin had thought their kiss was the opposite of a mistake. It was all he had ever wanted and more. Seungmin never thought it was possible for Minho to feel the same, but when their lips had met last night, Seungmin _knew_ that it was meant to be. Call him cheesy and delusional, but the way his entire being lit up at the press of Minho's lips spoke wonders.

What he felt for Minho was unlike anything he felt before. Seungmin wanted Minho. So. So. So. Bad.

Maybe that was exactly what he should tell Minho.

Seungmin’s heart begins beating sporadically in his chest at the absurd thought. Then he realizes he should probably text Minho back. 

Seungmin types, and then deletes, types some more, deletes that too. He does that about 20 more times until he gives up and throws his phone against his pillow, throwing himself next and screaming. After a lengthy debate in his head, Seungmin sits back up again and settles on a simple text back. 

**To:** **_minmeow_ **

yeah sounds good

i’ll see you soon

As soon as he hits send Seungmin regrets it, but it's too late. His head screams at him. _Was it too long? Too short? Should I have used more punctuation? Maybe less? Maybe I should have said more like I miss you or I can't wait to see you?_

Seungmin ends up blasting Day6 to try to drone out the voices. 

Seungmin never usually put too much time in getting ready in the morning. Especially since his outfit was always the same and he just had to flatten the hair on his head. The only thing that would ever really take his time would be putting his contacts in, but he had pretty much mastered that. 

That morning though, Seungmin put way too much time into getting his hair to lay flat on his forehead, his slightly curled brown hair tickling his eyebrows. He never really cared about his hair, as long as it was presentable he could care less, but now he began to question everything. What would Minho think if his hair was a little messy? What if his hair didn't lay perfectly straight?

Something else about this day was going to drive him crazy. Since it was out of school, the students didn't have to wear their uniforms, meaning Seungmin has to pick out an outfit. Being a friend of Felix meant frequent shopping trips whenever they had the time, and Seungmin had a closet full of nice clothes. But when it came to actually plan out an outfit, Seungmin needed some help.

So pushing his pride to the side, Seungmin FaceTimes Felix. 

“What time is it?” Felix’s groggy, slightly robotic voice comes out the speakers of Seungmin’s phone, the camera shaking from Felix moving it around so much. Then the camera moves, and Felix is revealed, laying within his assortment of plushies, his lavender hair a messy halo on his pillow. 

Seungmin just cocks an eyebrow. “Shouldn't you be getting ready for the bake sale?” 

Felix’s eyes go wide on the other line. “Shit, that’s today?” 

Seungmin chuckles at his friend's wide eyes and says, “don't worry, you still have time.” 

Felix groans and drops his phone into his bed, the sound statics and Seungmin winces at the sounds. “Thank god you called to wake me up.” 

“Actually,” Seungmin says bashfully. “That's not why I called.”

The screen shakes and then Felix is visible again, now very close to his face to where Seungmin can clearly make out the dark little brown spots across his cheeks. “What is it?”

Seungmin rethinks all of his life choices in a matter of seconds. “I need help picking out an outfit.” 

Felix’s eyes go so wide it looks like they take up the entire screen of Seungmin’s phone, and he only has that warning before his friend _screams_. “What!?” Felix shrieks and Seungmin is slightly afraid that his friend is going to break his speakers. “What's the special occasion? It's just the bake sale? Oh my god it's because of Minho, isn't it! I saw the way you two were acting at Byeol, and everyone could see the tension between the two of you at the baseball game!” 

Seungmin’s screen goes wild, and he can only assume it's because Felix is running rampant in his room going over every little idea he could think of. Seungmin is almost afraid of how his friend is going to react to what he's about to tell him next. 

“We kissed,” Seungmin says, his heart pounding in his chest as the memories begin flooding his head. The shaking of Felix’s screen stops and is now replaced with the image of Felix staring bug-eyed at his phone screen. Felix stands there for a moment, processing. Seungmin is a little afraid that he broke his friend, but Felix is only standing still for another moment before he's shrieking like a banshee once more. 

“You WHAT!?” Felix screams and Seungmin wonders how he hasn't been yelled at to shut up by his family yet. 

“I kissed Minho,” Seungmin repeats, his heart in his throat. 

Then Felix goes silent. His friend blinks once, twice, a third time, and then speaks, “you kissed Minho.” 

Seungmin nods. 

“Tell me everything,” Felix breathes out. So Seungmin does. Seungmin tells Felix how they had been hanging out during the baseball game, and how when Jisung wasn't doing good the coach had asked them to get more baseballs. How Minho and Seungmin ended up in a compromisable position, which led Seungmin to kiss Minho. How afterward, they didn't talk about it, both claiming “nothing happened”. How before he left, Minho had kissed the corner of his mouth and ran off, leaving Seungmin with a beating and bleeding heart. 

“Wow, you guys sure like to dance around each other,” Felix lets out a breathy laugh when Seungmin finishes. “You guys literally made out with each other and you're still like tiptoeing around each other.” 

Seungmin groans and falls back into his bed, which was now made. He lets his phone fall beside him and closes his eyes to just focus on Felix’s voice. 

“I don't know what to do,” Seungmin sighs. “But I do know I want to look good, so let's focus on that.” 

“Alright,” Felix says and Seungmin can hear the grin on his lips. “You still have that polo sweater I made you buy a couple of months back, right?” Felix asks, and Seungmin knows he's in for a long ride in the coming hour. 

And Seungmin had been correct. Felix had ended up coming over, not thinking Seungmin was doing a good enough job of getting ready on his own. Seungmin became Felix’s personal barbie for the next hour and was very glad he had woken up a couple of hours before he had to be at the bake sale. 

It was supposed to be a warm day, so Felix had dressed him in a pair of tan shorts that went down to his knees and a thin blue sweater with sleeves that were so long they went over the tips of his fingers. When Seungmin had quirked an eyebrow in question at the interesting material, Felix had just shrugged and claimed it was ‘fashion’. It was comfortable though, so Seungmin didn't complain. 

Felix had played with his hair a little too and got Seungmins slightly wavy hair to lay nicely on his forehead while looking a good amount of fluffy, at least that's how his freckled friend had put it. That was when Felix learned of the text he had gotten from Minho and Seungmin to realize he had completely forgotten to tell his friend. Felix screamed a little, and Seungmin’s older sister had barged into his room to yell at them to shut up. It just resulted in Seungmin and Felix to burst out into giggles at the state of his sister's hair. And that just resulted in both of them being kicked out of the house. Felix and Seungmin had giggled the entire way out of his house. 

While they were on the way to their school, Felix made Seungmin recount everything that had happened with Minho in the past week, so Seungmin indulged his friend.

By the time they made it to the school, Seungmin had talked Felix’s ear off about Minho. 

“God, it took you both long enough to kiss, I honestly thought it would take the two of you longer to admit your feelings,” Felix says as they reach their stop, hopping off the bus and hiking their bookbags up their shoulders. 

“You think he likes me?” Seungmin asks Felix nervously, his heart heavy in his chest. 

“Didn't you tell me that you two literally made out in that shed, and he even kissed you before he left the game,” Felix gives Seungmin a deadpan look. “You are really smart Seungmin, but dense as hell.”

“I could say the same to you!” Seungmin counters pouting. 

“Oh really?” Felix scoffs. 

“Oh yeah!” Seungmin quips as they walk up the path to their school. “When will you admit your feelings to Jisung?” 

“Shut up!” Felix shrieks and looks around frantically, like there was a possibility Jisung could be there to hear Seungmin. “That’s different!”

“How is that different?” Seungmin laughs. 

“I don't know if he actually likes me back, we do in fact know that Minho likes you back,” Felix counters, sending his best friend a glare. 

“You just don’t think Jisung likes you back, but I can say he does,” Seungmin continues. It was pretty obvious to everyone but Felix that Jisung liked him. It was clear that night at Byeol, the way Jiusng would hang off every single one of Felix’s words, and the way his eyes would light up whenever he looked at Felix. 

“Well, he hasn't kissed me against a shed wall yet, has he?” Felix sends a playful glare towards Seungmin. 

“That was unnecessary,” Seungmin says feeling his ears begin to heat up. Felix laughs as a cloud of rosy hue travels across the apples of Seungmin’s cheeks. Seungmin starts walking a bit faster, passing Felix. His freckled friend starts laughing harder than before at his childish behavior and runs up to catch up with Seungmin. 

“You’re just mad I’m right,” Felix sticks his tongue out at Seungmin, his lavender hair bouncing like the rest of him. Seungmin rolls his eyes and takes his phone out of his back pocket when he feels it vibrate. When he unlocks his phone to see the notification, he stops in his tracks. 

**From:** **_minmeow_ **

i got to the school early so whenever you get here i’ll be waiting in the library 

i hope to see you soon seungmin

Seungmin stops and stares at the texts. Felix walks on, not realizing that Seungmin had stopped until the lavender hair boy tries talking to his friend and gets no response.

“Seungmin?” Felix calls back. “What's wrong?” 

“Minho texted me,” Seungmin gulps, his breathing already starting to increase. The knot that had been slowly growing in his stomach since that morning makes its grand debut, and Seungmin feels the need to sit down. 

“Holy shit,” Felix runs over to Seungmin, diving to look at his phone screen. “He’s here!” Felix shrieks. 

“Yah,” Seungmin brings his free hand to cover his ear. “I can read you know, don't need to scream it in my ear.” 

“You’ll live,” Felix pats Seungmin’s shoulder, not looking sorry at all. Seungmin continues to stare at the messages, rereading them over and over again in his head. Seungmin was over-analyzing them, trying to read between the spaces. He wasn't sure why he was doing it. Maybe for any clue from Minho, or just an excuse to keep himself busy before he had to see Minho. 

“Dude,” Felix waves a hand in between Seungmin and his phone. “Earth to Seungmin, earth to Seungmin.” 

Seungmin shakes his head, taking a deep breath feeling almost like it was a week ago and he was going to meet Minho in the aux gym on Seonghwas orders. The nerves he was feeling right now could rival that day. 

“Seungmin?” Felix's voice breaks through to him again, laced with concern. “Are you okay?”

Seungmin looks up to see his best friend looking at him worriedly, and he realizes that he needs to calm down. He didn't need to be so nervous, it was just Minho. Just Minho. Just. Minho. 

There was that deja vu again. 

“Yeah, I’m good, just, wow,” Seungmin breathes out, his breathing coming out a little shaky. 

“Hey, it's okay Seung, it’s just Minho,” Felix places a hand on Seungmin’s shoulder, drawing his attention. 

“You’re right,” Seungmin says, smiling softly when he starts thinking about Minho. Thinking about everything they had been through the past week, the past month, the past year. “I just can't help but think.” 

“I understand,” Felix chuckles lightly. “I mean just like how I’m with Jisung, it’s just hard for me to believe he could actually like me.” 

“Which he does,” Seungmin quickly responds. 

“This isn't about my love life,” Felix glares at Seungmin. 

“You mentioned him,” Seungmin cocks an eyebrow at his friend. 

“Okay, whatever,” Felix shakes his hands at Seungmin. “Go to him,” Felix tilts his head in the direction of the school, giving Seungmin a reassuring smile. 

“You positive he likes me back?” Seungmin asks hesitantly. 

“You and Minho made out in the baseball shed, and before you both went home, kissed you goodbye, so yes, I am very positive,” Felix sasses Seungmin, lifting an eyebrow to further the sass. 

Seungmin rolls his eyes in response, the knot in his stomach loosening. “Okay, since you are usually right, I will trust your judgment.”

“Wait, what did you just say?” Felix perks up, a wide smile on his face. 

“I am not repeating myself,” Seungmin deadpans. 

“Then you better get your ass inside,” Felix fixes Seungmin with a _look_ and points at the school. “Just text me whenever and we’ll meet up later,” Felix says, and then a soft blush flares on his cheeks. “I’ll be meeting up with Jisung, so you don't need to worry much about me.” 

“So that's why you wore that,” Seungmin says and gestures to the soft cream-colored sweater Felix was wearing over a pastel pink fitted skirt with white knee socks with cute little bows on the front. 

“Leave. Now.” Felix glares at Seungmin, his pointer finger sharply pointing at the school. Seungmin laughs, waves goodbye to his friend, and heads inside the school. 

Seungmin checks his phone, rereading the message before shoving open the doors to the school. He looks behind him one last time to see Felix standing just before the entrance of the school, typing something into his phone _. Most likely texting Jisung,_ he thinks. 

Seungmin takes a deep breath and walks into the school. The library was just a short walk from the front of the school, just long enough for Seungmin to get inside his own head. Seungmin takes a left down a hallway, his mind racing with the possibilities. Felix was right, this was Minho, and they had gotten really close the past two weeks. Seungmin groans, and bites his lip to try to contain the sound as he then takes a right, and then he is met with the big grand doors of the library. Deja vu hits him for the nth time that day as he stands in front of the doors. 

What if Minho regretted it? What if Minho had never meant to kiss him, or he had just done it to try it out? And it turns out he didn't like it? Sure, Minho had kissed him goodnight, but could he really read that much into that little kiss? Seungmin sighs, knowing he can't prolong their meet anymore. 

Seungmin figured he would find Minho in their little nook, probably sitting on the ledge waiting for him. Though that wasn't the case. When Seungmin pulls the door to the library open, he is greeted with the sound of a chair falling over and a soft yelp. Seungmin pulls the door fully open, confused, and casts his eyes into the library. 

There on the floor, a fallen chair beside him, is Minho, staring up at him with wide, scared eyes. 

“Are you okay?” Seungmin runs inside, dropping down to his knees beside Minho who was now laying down on the floor like a starfish, staring up at the ceiling. 

“Please tell me you didn't see that,” Minho doesn’t meet Seungmin’s eyes like he usually does, just stares lifelessly up at the ceiling. 

Seungmin pauses at the question, almost about to burst out in laughter at the absurdity about it, but decides to try and hold it in. “No, I just walked in and saw you on the floor,” Seungmin cant keep most of the giggles in, and some tumble past his lips. 

Minho brings his hands up and covers his face with a groan. Through his fingers, Seungmin can see Minho’s cheeks begin to redden. Seungmin laughs and all the anxiety he had been feeling earlier was gone, just happy to be laughing with Minho once again. 

“Come on, it’s okay,” Seungmin reaches to pry Minho’s hands from his face, wanting to see the beautiful face of the president. With much effort, Seungmin gets Minho to remove his hands, but as soon as the president looks up and meets his eyes, he rethinks his choice. Somehow, he had ended up hovering above Minho, looking down into Minho’s eyes as the other looked up at him. Like how it always seemed to be for them, it was somehow soft and intense at the same time. Seungmin can't bring himself to look away, or even think about what he had come here to do. Then Minho’s eyes dart down to Seungmin’s lips and it's like a bucket of ice water being thrown over his head. 

“We need to talk,” Seungmin gulps, using all his self-control to not lean down and kiss Minho there on the library floor. Minho nods, his eyes going back up to meet Seungmin. He really doesn't want to leave this position, but he knows he has to. Seungmin sits up, leans back, and crosses his legs while shrugging his backpack off his back. Minho sits up as well, and that's when Seungmin can get a good look at the president. 

Seungmin has seen Minho in street clothes countless times. They had known each other for over a year and had done countless outside of school activities for Seungmin to see Minho in street clothes, but now it felt like the first time. 

Minho had on a navy sweater with a cute little bear printed on the front over a collared shirt. It was paired with a pair of slightly baggy tan pants that stopped just above his ankles to show a pair of white socks and checkered vans. It was simple, something comfortable for their day being spent inside for the bake sale, but somehow it did a lot to Seungmin's heart. 

“Yeah, we probably should,” Minho says, reaching up and running a hand through his hair. The movement exposes his forehead for a second before his bangs fall back into place on his forehead. Seungmin doesn't remember the last time he had seen Minho with his bangs laying flat on his forehead, and just like everything, it was doing things to his heart. 

“What happened last night?” Seungmin blurts, his heart pounding so hard in his chest he's afraid Minho might be able to hear. “And please don't say, I don't know again or nothing happened because something did happen.” 

“We kissed,” Minho breathes out, meeting Seungmin’s gaze in a blazing contact. 

“Was it just a kiss?” Seungmin asks, his voice small and slightly shaky. He was almost afraid he was going to start crying with just how much he was feeling at that moment. 

Minho’s eyes go wide like he can't believe what Seungmin had just said. “No, it wasn't just a kiss, at least not for me,” Minho says, his voice steady but just as shaky as Seungmin’s.

“Minho-” Seungmin starts but before he could continue, Minho interrupts him. 

“I like you!” Minho shouts, eyes squeezed shut and hands clenched at his sides. “I’ve liked you for so long,” Minho breaths out, like the weight of his confession had been wearing him down. “I’ve liked you since last year when you were just that shy sophomore who had big dreams to be big on the student council, and I’ve liked you until now when we’ve clashed in every aspect of our lives when we fought more than we talked, and especially now,” Minho opens his eyes slowly, and looks up at Seungmin, tears catching at his waterline. “Now, when you look at me and I feel like we’re the only ones in the room, and you ask me how my day was, and when you tease me and then smile at me with that smile that makes my heart do somersaults in my chest.

I have liked you for so long Seungmin, and for so long I thought that I was going to be feeling so much for you forever and be alone in my feelings, and now we’re here and kissing you yesterday was all my dreams personified and all I want to do is kiss you again, but I’m so afraid you don't feel the same because for the past year all we have done is fight, but things are different now and I honestly feel even more confused, but yesterday with you, I have never felt freer, and I just want you, I want you so bad Seungmin,” There are soft tears flowing down Minho’s cheeks, his words coming out shaky from the tears that clogged his throat. Seungmin stares, Minho’s words doing tumbles throughout his head. Seungmin didn't feel so afraid anymore. 

Seungmin sits up, reaching out to Minho. Minho immediately responds to Seungmin, leaning forwards and meeting the junior representative halfway. Their lips meet, and it's like a missing puzzle piece had righted itself in Seungmin.

Seungmin wraps his arms around Minho and pulls him forward till their chests are pressed together, and let his arms wrap around Minho’s waist. Minho’s hands were wrapped around his neck, his fingers threaded in the soft hairs at Seungmins nape. This wasn't like their first kiss the previous day, this kiss was more deliberate, softer, and more precise. Now, Seungmin knew just when to tilt his head to get Minho to keen and pull at the soft hair on his nape. And Minho knew how to press into the kiss to make Seungmin pull him closer until all they could feel was each other.

Reluctantly, Seungmin pulls away, knowing there was something he had to tell the other. Minho chases after Seungmin, a whine on his lips. It makes Seungmin beam. 

“I like you too, so much,” Seungmin says leaning forward until their foreheads knock together gently. “I want you Minho, all of you, your best days and worst days, I want it all.” 

“You have no idea how long I have wanted to hear you say that,” Minho sobs softly, his fingers tightening in Seungmin’s hair. 

“Well, you don't have to wait anymore,” Seungmin whispers before he's leaning forward again, catching Minho’s lips. 

Minho’s sweater is soft under Seungmin’s fingertips, but it's no match to how soft his lips feel in his own. The way the slide against his own lights a spark under his skin just like how it did yesterday. Kissing Minho was like thousands of sparks tickling his skin, making him fly higher than clouds and touch the stars. Minho was his sun, Seungmin was Icarus, and he was not afraid to burn. 

And of course, Seungmin expects it at this point, Minho’s phone starts going off, a loud and annoying sound. Even though Seungmin really doesn't want to, they pull apart. It’s not like their first kiss where they had jumped away from each other, this time they retract their lips slowly, not wanting to part. They stay in each other's space, their arms still wrapped around each other, refusing to let go. 

“I should probably get that,” Minho sighs against his lips, and Seungmin has to hold himself back from leaning back in to steal another kiss. 

“Alright, but I’m not letting you go,” Seungmin says and tightens his arms around Minho’s body. 

“I wouldn't want you to anyways,” Minho beams, and quickly presses his mouth against Seungmins for a quick peck before he's answering the phone call. 

“Hey, what's up?” Minho says into the phone, but his eyes are still locked on Seungmin’s. 

“Mr. Song’s looking for you, needs you for some shit about the bake sale,” From how close they are, Seungmin can hear Seonghwa on the other line of the phone, talking quickly to Minho. 

“Alright, I’ll be there soon, where should I meet him?” Minho asks, tilting his head so that their noses slide together. 

“In his room,” Seonghwa answers just as quickly as before. 

“Be there soon, bye,” Minho says, and before Seonghwa could reply, hangs up the call. As soon as he hears the line cut dead, Minho leans forward and connects their lips again. And yeah, Seungmin was never going to get used to the feel of Minho’s lips against his. 

“Okay, before they come looking for me,” Minho pulls away panting. “We should go.” 

“Fine,” Seungmin pouts, leaving a small kiss on Minho's nose and reluctantly removing his arms from around Minho’s body. “But we're doing more of that later.” 

Minho laughs, and it's the best sound Seungmin has ever heard. Minho stands up and drops a hand down to pull Seungmin up as well. Seungmin doesn't drop Minho’s hand after that. There is the faintest tear treks on Minho’s cheeks, and Seungmin brings his hand up to wipe them away delicately. 

“Does it look like I've been crying?” Minho pouts, leaning into Seungmin's touch. 

“You're actually a really pretty crier, so you look beautiful right now,” Seungmin says, still trying to catch his breath from their kiss. Minho’s cheek heats up under Seungmin’s palm and the smaller boy lets out a squeak at his words. 

“Oh shut up,” Minho grumbles, but Seungmin can see the beautiful smile on his lips. 

They walk hand in hand to Mr. Song’s room, and Seungmin has never been happier. When they get to Mr. Song’s classroom, they're both quickly given tasks to do. Minho has to go talk to the bakers and go over more details with Soobin, so they have to sadly part. Seungmin is given the task to start getting the booths ready. He gets Renjun and Daehwi to help him out, and they easily finish since the art club had already done most of the decorating. All they really needed to do was set up all the treats and desserts in a pretty manner. 

The next time Seungmin sees Minho is when the entire student council meets up before they open the doors to the public. Mr. Song and Minho both give little speeches, saying how everyone did well and that their hard work was going to pay off. Throughout the entirety of the meeting, Minho and Seungmin did not break eye contact. 

“You all did great, thank you all for your help in setting up the bake sale, now you can all enjoy it!” Minho claps his hands together, his eyes locked on Seungmin. Everyone else breaks out into a small chorus of cheers. Seungmin can hear Renjun and Chaeryeong talking about all the chocolate treats they’ll eat, and Soobin is practically vibrating in excitement beside him. Though, Seungmin only pays attention to Minho. His lips looked slightly glossier than the last time he had seen him, and Seungmin briefly wonders if he put on lipgloss. He wants to walk over and press his lips against Minho to prove if he was right about the lipgloss. Then Seungmin realizes he can, so he does. 

Minho had looked away from Seungmin for a moment, turning to talk to Jiwoo about something, and doesn't notice Seungmin walking up at first. Seungmin smiles at Minho, looking at his side profile and feeling so much fondness in his chest he feels like he’ll choke on it. 

Seungmin steps up beside Minho, reaching out and poking his tummy to gain the president's attention. Minho jolts a little, looking over shocked. When his eyes meet Seungmin, they soften, and a bright smile encases his lips. Minho looks more delectable than any of the treats Seungmin had helped set up that day, so he doesn't think twice before he leans down and presses his lips against Minho’s. The president makes a sound in the back of his throat in surprise by the sudden kiss but is quick to clutch at Seungmin’s sweater and kiss him eagerly back. 

Seungmin had been right, Minho had put on some lipgloss and it tasted like strawberries when their lips slid together. Though Seungmin knew how to keep it PG and after a couple of seconds, pulls back from Minho. Seungmin leans back and stares at Minho’s still glistening lips, his heart thumping in his chest. Yeah, Seungmin will never get over kissing Minho. 

“What the fuck just happened,” Renjun blurts, and then Seungmin notices how the attention of the entire student council is on the two of them. 

“Fuck yeah, finally!” Seonghwa practically screams, his eyes bright. 

“It took you two long enough,” Dahyun shakes her head fondly from where she's standing next to Seonghwa, and then puts her fist up to Seonghwa. The vice president bumps his fist against hers and Seungmin doesn't even know how to react to the two. 

“When the hell did this happen,” Daehwi stares at the two his fingers pointing at the two of them, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. 

“I honestly thought they hated each other,” Chaeryeong admits, looking just as shocked at the rest of the council members. 

“I mean, I always had a hunch, but I didn't actually think they would... do that,” Jiwoo laughs behind her hand, pointing at the two just as Daehwi had. 

“What the fuck,” Renjun just repeats. 

Then Seungmin notices Soobin, who had stopped vibrating from excitement and was now staring at Seungmin and Minho like they were ghosts. 

“Oh cut it out,” Minho rolls his eyes and grabs the back of Seungmin’s neck to pull him down for one more kiss. And who was Seungmin to deny Minho? 

“Okay okay, we are all really happy that you two finally worked everything out, but you can't be doing this all the time now,” Seonghwa places his two hands on their shoulder and pulls them apart. Minho whips his head around to glare at Seonghwa, and Seungmin can't help but laugh.

“Then, we’ll just go make out somewhere where you can’t see,” Minho quips and starts to drag Seungmin away from the cluster of council members. Seungmin’s cheeks flare red, though he is certainly excited to make out with Minho again. 

“Oh no you don't,” Dahyun then slaps her hands on their shoulders, just as Seonghwa had done, stopping them in their tracks. “You both are going to enjoy this bake sale together, you can kiss all you want afterward.” 

Then Seonghwa sneaks up beside Seungmin, and Dahyun goes to stand beside Minho, and the two pairs together to start escorting them throughout the bake sale. 

The bake sale was set up in the main hallway that was the entrance to the school, and booths were lining the hallways. There were all types of sweets and treats. Cookie, brownies, cakes, tarts, scones, macarons, and then other more creative treats. 

Seungmin looks to his side and meets Minho’s eyes, and gives him a smile. Minho bites his lip softly and reaches out to thread his fingers through Seungmin’s. Dahyun and Seonghwa escort them through the booths, and every time they pass a booth with chocolate chip cookies, Seungmin grabs one. 

At one point, Seungmin leans over and whispers in Minho’s ear, “what's your favorite?” and gestures to the sweets piling the booth. Minho shivers at Seungmin's breath on his ear before whispering back, “I love anything apple.” 

So the next time Seungmin sees an apple tart on a booth, he grabs it and stashes it with his chocolate chip cookies in the little bag everyone was given to take their sweets with. 

When they finally reach the last booth, Dahyun and Seonghwa let go of the two, giving them both knowing looks. Seungmin doesn't give them a second glance before he's tugging on Minho’s hand and taking them down the hallways to the library. Minho giggles the entire way, and as soon as the doors to the library are pushed open and close behind them, Minho surges forward and attaches their lips together. 

Seungmin smiles into the kiss and threads his fingers through Minho’s hair, feeling the soft tufts against the pads of his fingers. Then, Minho starts giggling, and the laughs take over his body and he has to pull away from Seungmin. The junior representative watches with a smile, fingers running through his hair.

“What's so funny,” Seungmin asks, moving to wrap his arm that held the sweets bag around Minho’s waist. 

“I’m just,” Minho laughs, his words hiccuping out of his mouth. “I’m just so happy.”

Seungmin absolutely beams. “I am too.” 

Seungmin leans down to place a quick kiss on Minho’s lips before leaning back and softly whispering, “I got us something.” 

“Oh really?” Minho cocks an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“You’ll have to see,” Seungmin then steps back, moving completely away from Minho and walking towards their little nook in the back of the library. Minho whines, and chases after Seungmin. Minho grabs onto Seungmin, wrapping his arms around the junior representatives' waist and causing the two to have to waddle their way to their little nook. 

When they get to the little table, Seungmin moves the chair so that they are sitting right next to each other. 

“What is it?” Minho asks again, eyes wide and lips slightly parted, looking like a curious kitten. Seungmin has to hold himself back from leaning forward and kissing him again. 

“I got us some treats,” Seungmin lifts up the sweet bag and pushes it towards Minho. The president cocks an eyebrow at Seungmin before he tilts the bag open and peaks inside. 

“Oh my god,” Minho’s eyes go wide. “Did you get me apple treats?” 

Seungmin hums, a beaming smile on his lips as he gazes at Minho. The president squeals and reaches into the bag, getting out one of the many apples treats Seungmin had put into his treat bag. 

“I didn't even think to get myself something,” Minho says as he stuffs the apple tart in his mouth, munching on it with a blissed-out look on his face. 

“I’m surprised,” Seungmin laughs. “I saw the way you were eyeing some of those treats.” 

Then Minho blushes and bashfully looks up at Seungmin through his lashes. “I was kinda distracted thinking about kissing you,” Minho admits and then its Seungmins turn to blush. 

“Well, you don't need to imagine it anymore,” Seungmin whispers, bringing his thumb up to brush away a little crumb on Minho’s bottom lip. Minho stares at him with wide, pleading eyes, and Seungmin closes the distance between their lips. 

It’s softer than any of the kisses they shared before. It’s slow, and Seungmin can taste the apple on Minho’s lips and savors the taste. Minho brings a hand up and cups Seungmin’s cheek pulls him closer, and kisses him harder before pulling away entirely. Seungmin chases Minho’s lips, but the hand on his cheek keeps the junior representative back. 

“Seungmin,” Minho says panting softly, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Seungmin’s.

“Yeah?” Seungmin mumbles, leaning in a little closer himself, his eyes darting down to Minho’s glistening lips. They were just a little pinker than before, and Seungmin feels proud. 

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Minho asks, and Seungmins eyes go wide in shock and dart up from Minho’s lips and to meet his eyes, not expecting the question. But then, he breaks out into a beaming smile, his heart fluttering in his chest, and can't help the little giggle that slips past his lips.

“Aww,” Seungmin pouts. “I wanted to ask you that.” 

“So is that a yes?” Minho asks, hope in his eyes. 

“Yes, the biggest yes,” Seungmin whispers and leans in once more. The apple taste on Minho’s lips is starting to get addicting, and Seungmin presses harder, just as Minho had done before. Minho hums contently against his lips and Seungmin knows he has never been happier than he is at this moment.

metanoia (n.) _the journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self, or way of life, spiritual conversation_

**Author's Note:**

> wow that was a ride wasn't it? i hope you enjoyed my fic! maybe subscribe to my ao3 for future fics! and also please give me attention i crave it <3 ily! thank you for reading <3
> 
> [twitter!](https://twitter.com/sapphicseung)
> 
> update! here is some AMAZING [fanart](https://twitter.com/koalaquarelle/status/1325859601116434433?s=20) based off of 2min in their baseball uniforms! please go give it lots of love!!


End file.
